.NET Naming Conventions

I often get asked about the Naming Conventions I adhere to when writing code (C#, naturally).

It made sense to share these in a blog post so I can refer to it in future.

Some of these guidelines (well, one, the underscore on private fields) are negotiable as a matter of style. However, the public stuff is non-negotiable. For this is how .NET APIs should be and failure to adhere to this reflects badly on your code. No, no, no.

I thought a good way to present this would be an example class demonstrating the rules and some comments to help, so here goes:

using System;

// Namespaces are PascalCased
namespace TheJoyOfCode.NamingConventions
{
// Class names are PascalCased
    public class ExampleClass
{
// All public fields, including constants are PascalCased
        public static const string PiAsAString = "3.14";

// All private fields are camelCased with an underscore [1]
        private readonly string _privateMember;

// All protected members are PascalCased
        protected int ProtectedField = 12;

// All internal members are PascalCased
        internal int InternalField = 13;

// All private methods are PascalCased
        // *** NOTE - All parameters are camelCased
        private double Multiply(double valueA, double valueB)
{
// local variables (scoped within a method) are camelCased (no underscore)
            double result = valueA * valueB;
return result;
}

// All private Properties are PascalCased
        // *** NOTE - Acronyms of 2 characters are UPPERCASED (e.g. UI, IO)
        private string UIElementName { get; }

// All (public and private) properties are PascalCased
        // *** NOTE - Acronyms longer than 2 characters are PascalCased (e.g. Html, Xml)
        public int HtmlLength { get; set; }

// All public methods are PascalCased
        // *** NOTE - All parameters are camelCased
        // *** NOTE - Abbreviations are not treated as Acronyms (so _Id_entification is Id, not ID).
        private void AlignObjectById(string id, Alignment alignment)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}

// Nested classes are PascalCased, even Private ones
        private class NestedClass : IDisposable
{
public void Dispose()
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
}
}

// Enums are PascalCased and not plural (unless marked [Flags] in which case the name should be plural)
    public enum Alignment
{
// Enum members are PascalCased
        Top,
Bottom,
Left,
Right,
}
}

// [1] - Note the underscore isn't as recommended by StyleCop but since it applies only to private members, can be considered a matter of style and one that I personally use.

... and as for #region blocks I do not use regions and I don't negotiate with terrorists either.

Originally posted by Josh Twist on 8 September 2009 here.

Comments

• Anonymous
  November 05, 2009
  I use exactly the same convensions as yourself, including the underscore for private fields even though it feels slightly naughty! I tried camel casing for private fields for a while, but it felt just a little bit too weird. Really hope StyleCop can be integrated directly into Visual Studio one of these days.

• Anonymous
  December 06, 2009
  Hi Daniel, StyleCop was designed be run within Visual Studios directly after installation. Here's a link to the Microsoft StyleCop MSDN page.