Can I use a variable to name other variables?

How do you decide what to name variables (in writing, not programming)?

• As an experienced programmer, I wouldn't think twice about giving a variable representing profits the name "profits."  But I am writing a paper that is long on economics, sociology, and political science.  And written papers, in my experience, usually use single letter names so profits becomes "p" and that's the end of it.  But I have about four variables that represent things beginning with p.  So how should I do this?

• Answer:

  Social science variables aren't always represented by their first letter. In economics, income is typically Y.  If you're looking to just create representation on the fly, it is not uncommon to use both uppercase and lower case letters to mean completely different things.  You can also use subscripts heavily -- subscript numbers to represent periods and subscript letters to do type differentiation. [ e.g. P1 and P2 for prices 1 and 2, Cv and Cf for variable and fixed cost, P for price and p for profit ].  As a rule though, consult your discipline's literature for primary guidance.