Naming Conventions for .NET / C# Projects

Naming Conventions for .NET / C# Projects

The original of this document was developed by the Microsoft special interest group. We made some addons. This document explains the naming conventions that should be used with .NET projects. A consistent naming pattern is one of the most important elements of predictability and discoverability in a managed class library. Widespread use and understanding of these naming guidelines should eliminate unclear code and make it easier for developers to understand shared code. Capitalization Styles Defined We define three types of capitalization styles: Pascal case The first letter in the identifier and the first letter of each subsequent concatenated word are capitalized. Example: BackColor, DataSet Camel case The first letter of an identifier is lowercase and the first letter of each subsequent concatenated word is capitalized. Example: numberOfDays, isValid Uppercase All letters in the identifier are capitalized. Example: ID, PI Hungarian Type Notation Defined Hungarian notation is any of a variety of standards for organizing a computer program by selecting a schema for naming your variables so that their type is readily available to someone familiar with the notation. It is in fact a commenting technique. Example: strFirstName, intNumberOfDays There are different opinions about using this kind of type notation in programming nowadays. Some say that it’s useful, and it should be used everywhere to enhance clarity of your code. Others say it just obfuscates your code, because it has no real advantage in modern programming environments. Our point of view is a moderated one: use it wisely, meaning, we only use Hungarian notation for private or local variables, that are only accessible and interesting to the programmer of the class. Don’t use it with public variables, properties or parameters in methods, because they are exposed to the outside world. Someone who uses your classes and accesses properties of your class, is not interested in type, but just wants to use them. In the .NET framework, there are a lot of types, so we extended and adapted the Hungarian notation with our own type notation. Naming Guidelines 1).  Private Variables (Fields in C#) Naming Guidelines Naming guidelines Prefix private variables with a "_" and Hungarian-style notation. Case guidelines Use camel case as a general rule, or uppercase for very small words Example: _strFirstName, _dsEmployees // Field private OleDbConnection _connection; // Property public OleDbConnection Connection {   get { return _connection; }   set { _connection = value; } } 2).  Local Variables Naming Guidelines Naming guidelines Prefix private or local variables with Hungarian-style notation. Case guidelines Use camel case as a general rule, or uppercase for very small words Example: strFirstName, dsEmployees 3).  Namespace Naming Guidelines Naming guidelines The general rule for naming namespaces is to use the company name followed by the technology name and optionally the feature and design as follows: CompanyName.TechnologyName[.Feature][.Design] Prefixing namespace names with a company name or other well-established brand avoids the possibility of two published namespaces having the same name. Use a stable, recognized technology name at the second level of a hierarchical name. Example: Akadia.Traffic, System.Web.UI, System.Windows.Forms Case guidelines Use Pascal case as a general rule, or uppercase for very small words. Example: System.Windows.Forms, System.Web.UI 4).  Class Naming Guidelines Naming guidelines Use a noun or noun phrase to name a class.  Do not use a type prefix, such as C for class, on a class name. Do not use the underscore character (_). Case guidelines Use Pascal case. Example: FileStream, Button 5).  Interface Naming Guidelines Naming guidelines Prefix interface names with the letter "I", to indicate that the type is an interface. Do not use the underscore character (_). Case guidelines Use Pascal case. Example: IServiceProvider, IFormatable 6).  Parameter Naming Guidelines Naming guidelines Use descriptive parameter names. Parameter names should be descriptive enough that the name of the parameter and its type can be used to determine its meaning in most scenarios. To distinguish parameters from other variables the prefix "p" should be used. Do not prefix parameter names with Hungarian type notation. Do not use a prefix for parameter names of an event handler and exceptions. Case guidelines Use camel case. Example: pTypeName, pNumberOfItems, pintNumberOfItems 7).  Method Naming Guidelines Naming guidelines Use verbs or verb phrases to name methods. Case guidelines Use Pascal case. Example: RemoveAll(), GetCharAt() 8).  Property / Enumerations Naming Guidelines Naming guidelines Use a noun or noun phrase to name properties. Do not use Hungarian notation. Case guidelines Use Pascal case. Example: BackColor, NumberOfItems 9).  Event Naming Guidelines Naming guidelines Use an EventHandler suffix on event handler names. Specify two parameters named sender and e. The sender parameter represents the object that raised the event. The sender parameter is always of type object, even if it is possible to use a more specific type. The state associated with the event is encapsulated in an instance of an event class named "e". Use an appropriate and specific event class for the e parameter type. Name an event argument class with the EventArgs suffix. Case guidelines Use Pascal case. Example: public delegate void MouseEventHandler(object sender, MouseEventArgs e); 9).  Exception Naming Guidelines Naming guidelines Event handlers in Visual Studio .NET tend to use an "e" parameter for the event parameter to the call. To ensure we avoid a conflict, we will use "ex" as a standard variable name for an Exception object. Example catch (Exception ex) {   // Handle Exception } 10).   Constant Naming Guidelines The names of variables declared class constants should be all uppercase with words separated by underscores. It is recommended to use a grouping naming schema. Example (for group AP_WIN): AP_WIN_MIN_WIDTH, AP_WIN_MAX_WIDTH, AP_WIN_MIN_HIGHT, AP_WIN_MAX_HIGHT 11). C# Primitive Type Notation sbyte   sbyt short   shrt int     int long    lng byte    byt ushort  ushrt uint    uint ulong   ulng float   flt double  dbl decimal dec bool    bln char    ch 12).  Visual Control Type Notation Assembly                                asm Boolean                                 bln Button                                  btn Char                                    ch CheckBox                                cbx ComboBox                                cmb Container                               ctr DataColumn                              dcol DataGrid                                dg DataGridDateTimePickerColumn            dgdtpc DataGridTableStyle                      dgts DataGridTextBoxColumn                   dgtbc DataReader                              dreader DataRow                                 drow DataSet                                 dset DataTable                               dtable DateTime                                date Dialog                                  dialog DialogResult                            dr Double                                  dbl Exception                               ex GroupBox                                gbx HashTable                               htbl ImageList                               iml Integer                                 int Label                                   lbl ListBox                                 lbx ListView                                lv MarshallByRefObject                     rmt Mainmenu                                mm MenuItem                                mi MDI-Frame                               frame MDI-Sheet                               sheet NumericUpDown                           nud Panel                                   pnl PictureBox                              pbx RadioButton                             rbtn SDI-Form                                form SqlCommand                              sqlcom SqlCommandBuilder                       sqlcomb SqlConnection                           sqlcon SqlDataAdapter                          sqlda StatusBar                               stb String                                  str StringBuilder                           strb TabControl                              tabctrl TabPage                                 tabpage TextBox                                 tbx ToolBar                                 tbr ToolBarButton                           tbb Timer                                   tmr UserControl                             usr WindowsPrincipal                        wpl