Naming guidelines with C#

Question

I have this class:

class DoSomething
{
    private int timesDone;
    ...
}

Which is the right way to named variable 'timesDone'?

Sometimes I see named as m_timesDone. Is this correct? Where I can find information about naming guidelines?

Thank you!

Answer 1

According to MS standards your code is OK. Having prefixes as m_ is not really necessary when you have advanced IDE. However short prefix like _ can be used to take advantage of auto complete feature to quickly sort out class members.

I would recommend you to get a copy of "Framework Design Guidelines: Conventions, Idioms, and Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries" book to learn more on MS standards

Answer 2

There is no universal right way. Chose a naming convention of your liking and stick with it.

Answer 3

Definitely do not use m_timesDone.

Simply put "private int timesDone".

You can learn about how to name variables by reading some good books such as Code Complete.

Answer 4

Many people do as you have it there. You would then reference it as

this.timesDone = someInt

However, I don't like this because I am not a fan of typing 'this' to avoid clashes with method parameter names. As long as it is readable and consistent you will be fine.

Answer 5

The convention of prefacing member fields with m_ comes from the early days of C++, when Hungarian notation was popular. It is not a C# convention, and since most C# code is written using a recent Visual Studio it adds visual noise without any corresponding advantage, because you can easily see the scope of a variable anyway. Do not use m_.

The lone example of Hungarian notation that has found its way into C# is the practice of prefacing interface class names with I, such as IDisposable.

Answer 6

You can find some information directly on the MSDN site: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms229002.aspx

Answer 7

The only point of agreement that you will find is that it should not be TimesDown, but that it should start with a lower case letter.
In older publications (MS, MSDN), the use of a leading underscore is discouraged. Later it is back, especially for backingfields for properties: _timesDown.

Answer 8

The Strategy usually adopted is :

For Class & Method: Pascal Casing

e.g.

public class Program
 {
 }

e.g

public void DoSomething() { } 

For Variables: Camel Casing e.g. timesDown

Local Variables:

   aTimesDown

Global Variable:

myTimesDown

I hope this may help you :)