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I'm modeling a database and I have these three fields (among others):

  • created_by,
  • updated_by, and
  • deleted_by.

I'm using author as an alias for "created_by", and editor as an alias for "updated_by". What choices do I have as an alias for "deleted_by"?

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    Given these are just programming identities, perhaps it would have been better to go for consistency right from the start - created_by: creator, edited_by: editor, deleted_by: deleter (where deleter/deletor has been asked about on ELU before)
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 10, 2013 at 0:52
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    What was wrong with the natural deleter in the first place? You need not have looked it up anywhere, it should have occurred to you as the natural choice? (I happened to see this post just now.)
    – Kris
    Commented Dec 10, 2013 at 5:36
  • @FumbleFingers In the given context, the "word" editer with an e is also sometimes used, to distinguish from the usual editor.
    – Kris
    Commented Dec 10, 2013 at 6:21

2 Answers 2

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*What choices I have to aliase deleted_by?*

censor, scrubber, excisor, witholder, concealer, expurgator, excinder, publisher, appraiser.

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    ...redacter. ;)
    – Pat J
    Commented Dec 10, 2013 at 3:46
  • How is a publisher someone who deletes?
    – wythagoras
    Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 15:30
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It looks as if you are using a fairly straightforward CRUD model of the data lifecycle (create, read, update, delete). If so, then my primary suggestion would be to stick with the agent nouns that are obvious and a bit odd, but therefore also clear and distinctive: creator, reader, updater and deleter. Within the technical environment of your project, these would have usefully unmistakeable meanings.

In the spirit of your other 'aliases', however, and because in data processing this deletion means the end of that item's existence, instead of 'deleter' I am inclined to suggest 'terminator'...

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  • Oh, and 'retrieve' is sometimes used instead of 'read', in this context, so (if you are using that bit of the CRUD model) 'retriever' might be a usefully distinctive term instead of the relatively vague 'reader'.
    – Captain Cranium
    Commented Dec 23, 2015 at 15:38

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