Parameter Naming Guidelines

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It is important to carefully follow these parameter naming guidelines because visual design tools that provide context sensitive help and class browsing functionality display method parameter names to users in the designer. The following rules outline the naming guidelines for parameters:

  • Use camel case for parameter names.
  • 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. For example, visual design tools that provide context sensitive help display method parameters to the developer as they type. The parameter names should be descriptive enough in this scenario to allow the developer to supply the correct parameters.
  • Use names that describe a parameter's meaning rather than names that describe a parameter's type. Development tools should provide meaningful information about a parameter's type. Therefore, a parameter's name can be put to better use by describing meaning. Use type-based parameter names sparingly and only where it is appropriate.
  • Do not use reserved parameters. Reserved parameters are private parameters that might be exposed in a future version if they are needed. Instead, if more data is needed in a future version of your class library, add a new overload for a method.
  • Do not prefix parameter names with Hungarian type notation.

The following are examples of correctly named parameters.

GetType(typeName As String)As Type
Format(format As String, args() As object)As String
[C#]
Type GetType(string typeName)
string Format(string format, object[] args)

See Also

Design Guidelines for Class Library Developers | Parameter Usage Guidelines