Should you name all of your UI controls? What naming scheme do you use?

Question

This can be applied to any language/UI project. When the code is automatically generated, is there a need to name all of the UI controls? Presently I only name the ones I am referencing in code (although admittedly sometimes I get lazy and leave them). Or do you stick with the pre-generated names (textbox1, splitContainer1, menuStrip1, etc..)?

If you name them, how do you prevent overlap such as MyDataGridView1, MyDataGridView2, etc..

Answer 1

I only name the ones I reference too - most modern IDEs will easily rename a widget later if I need to reference it in code.

I usually give the names some meaning - accountDataView, currentBalanceDataView - it must relate to a concept like submitButton for the button that submits a form.

Answer 2

I always try to set GenerateMember to false for the controls I don't use in the code, but for the controls I do use in code, I usually choose meaningful names.

For example, if there was a button that submitted something then I would choose submitBtn. If there was a username textbox then I would call it usernameTxt. Etc, etc.

A small list:

• Buttons: btn
• Textboxes: txt
• Labels: lbl
• Checkboxes: chk
• Radio buttons: rad
• List boxes: lst
• Dialogs: dlg

...but above all else, just use what makes sense.

Answer 3

I name the controls that I access and have experimented with using the "ux" prefix so that I can find them easily with Intellisense. That way if I can't remember the exact name of a control I know it at lease starts with ux. Also, if I change the control type, the name can stay the same. I came across this a while back, but can't seem to find the article about it now.

uxFirstName