4/15/2010 .

NET Naming Conventions

Naming Conventions for .NET / C# Projects

Martin Zahn, Akadia AG, 20.03.2003

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, iNumberOfDays

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.

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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, _dsetEmployees

// 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, dsetEmployees

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
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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

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

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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 sy
short s
int i
long l
byte y
ushort us
uint ui
ulong ul
float f
double d
decimal dec
bool b
char c

12). Visual Control Type Notation

Assembly asm
Boolean bln
Button btn
Char ch
CheckBox cbx
ComboBox cmb
Container ctr
DataColumn dcol
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DataGrid dgrid
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

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