Naming Conventions and Standards:
Note :
The terms Pascal
Casing and Camel Casing are used throughout this document.
Pascal
Casing - First character of all words are Upper Case
and other characters are lower case.
Example: BackColor
Camel
Casing - First character of all words, except the
first word are Upper Case and other characters are lower case.
Example: backColor
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1.
Use Pascal casing for Class names
public class HelloWorld
{
...
}
2.
Use Pascal casing for Method names
void SayHello(string name)
{
...
}
3.
Use Camel casing for variables and
method parameters
int totalCount = 0;
void SayHello(string name)
{
string fullMessage
= "Hello " + name;
...
}
4.
Use the prefix “I” with Camel Casing
for interfaces ( Example: IEntity )
5.
Do not use Hungarian notation to name
variables.
In
earlier days most of the programmers liked it - having the data type as a
prefix for the variable name and using m_ as prefix for member variables. Eg:
string m_sName;
int nAge;
However,
in .NET coding standards, this is not recommended. Usage of data type and m_ to
represent member variables should not be used. All variables should use camel
casing.
Some programmers still prefer to use the
prefix m_ to represent member variables, since there is no other easy
way to identify a member variable.
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6.
Use Meaningful, descriptive words to
name variables. Do
not use abbreviations.
Good:
string address
int salary
Not Good:
string nam
string addr
int sal
7.
Do not use single character variable
names like i,
n, s etc.
Use names like index,
temp
One
exception in this case would be variables used for iterations in loops:
for ( int i = 0; i < count; i++ )
{
...
}
If
the variable is used only as a counter for iteration and is not used anywhere
else in the loop, many people still like to use a single char variable (i)
instead of inventing a different suitable name.
8.
Do not use underscores (_) for local variable
names.
9.
All member variables must be prefixed
with underscore (_) so that they can be identified from other local variables.
10. Do
not use variable names that resemble keywords.
11. Prefix
boolean variables,
properties and methods with “is” or similar prefixes.
Ex: private bool _isFinished
12. Namespace
names should follow the standard pattern
13.
Use appropriate prefix for the UI
elements so that you can identify them from the rest of the variables.
There are 2 different approaches recommended
here.
a.
Use a common prefix ( ui_ ) for all UI
elements. This will help you group all of the UI elements together and easy to
access all of them from the intellisense.
b.
Use appropriate prefix for each of the
ui element. A brief list is given below. Since .NET has given several controls,
you may have to arrive at a complete list of standard prefixes for each of the
controls (including third party controls) you are using.
Control
|
Prefix
|
Label
|
lbl
|
TextBox
|
txt
|
DataGrid
|
dtg
|
Button
|
btn
|
ImageButton
|
imb
|
Hyperlink
|
hlk
|
DropDownList
|
ddl
|
ListBox
|
lst
|
DataList
|
dtl
|
Repeater
|
rep
|
Checkbox
|
chk
|
CheckBoxList
|
cbl
|
RadioButton
|
rdo
|
RadioButtonList
|
rbl
|
Image
|
img
|
Panel
|
pnl
|
PlaceHolder
|
phd
|
Table
|
tbl
|
Validators
|
val
|
14. File
name should match with class name.
For
example, for the class HelloWorld, the file name should be helloworld.cs (or,
helloworld.vb)
15. Use
Pascal Case for file names.