C# Field Naming Guidelines?

Question

I am going to be working on a bit of C# code own my own but I want to make sure that I follow the most widely accepted naming conventions incase I want to bring on other developers, release my code, or sell my code. Right now I am following the naming convention that Microsoft has set as they seem to be the most widely accepted. The one thing they don't mention though is naming for private fields. For the most part I have seen them named in camelCase like protected fields however that present me with an issue as parameter names should be in camelCase. Take the following constructor for example:

public GameItem(string baseName, string prefixName, string suffixName)
{
    //initialize code
}

Now if I use camelCase for the private fields too there is a naming conflict unless I use "this" in order to access the class fields (which I think is against most standards not to mention means more typing). One solution is to give the parameter a different name but that does not make logical sense to give the same data 2 different names. The only other solution that I know of that was common in C++ coding is giving private members an underscore at the beginning. Is that solution commonly accepted with C# coding? Is there another solution to this problem (like only using properties (which use PascalCase) to access fields, even in the class itself)?

Answer 1

_camelCase for fields is common from what I've seen (it's what we use).

Answer 2

Following Microsoft's naming conventions, private fields should be prefixed with an underscore.

For example:

private int _myValue;

Good luck!

Answer 3

Philips Healtcare C# Coding Standard

MSDN - Eric Gunnerson

Edit: I use "this" keyword to access non-static members in C# and Java.

Answer 4

Follow the Microsoft Naming Guidelines. The guidelines for field usage indicate that it should be camelCase and not be prefixed. Note that the general rule is no prefix; the specific rule is not to prefix to distinguish between static and non-static fields.

Do not apply a prefix to field names or static field names. Specifically, do not apply a prefix to a field name to distinguish between static and nonstatic fields. For example, applying a g_ or s_ prefix is incorrect.

and (from General Naming Conventions)

Do not use underscores, hyphens, or any other nonalphanumeric characters.

EDIT: I will note that the docs are not specific with regard to private fields but indicate that protected fields should be camelCase only. I suppose you could infer from this that any convention for private fields is acceptable. Certainly public static fields differ from protected (they are capitalized). My personal opinion is that protected/private are not sufficiently different in scope to warrant a difference in naming convention, especially as all you seem to want to do is differentiate them from parameters. That is, if you follow the guidelines for protected fields, you'd have to treat them differently in this respect than private fields in order to distinguish them from parameters. I use this when referring to class members within the class to make the distinction clear.

Answer 5

The most important thing is to pick one standard and stick with it. Check out iDesign's C# Coding Standard at IDesign (it's a link on the right side). It's a great document that covers things like naming guidelines. They recommend using camel case for both local variables and method arguments.

Answer 6

The convention I use to distinguish between private class variables and method parameters is:

private string baseName;
private string prefixName;
private string suffixName;

public GameItem(string baseName, string prefixName, string suffixName)
{
    this.baseName = baseName;
    this.prefixName = prefixName;
    this.suffixName = suffixName;
}

Answer 7

private string baseName; 
private string prefixName; 
private string suffixName; 

public GameItem(string _baseName, string _prefixName, string _suffixName) 
{ 
    this.baseName = _baseName; 
    this.prefixName = _prefixName; 
    this.suffixName = _suffixName; 
} 

Answer 8

Generally there are two widely used ways to name fields (always using camelCase):

Using an underscore prefix

void F(String someValue) {
  _someValue = someValue;
}

Using this. to access the field and avoid name conflicts

void F(String someValue) {
  this.someValue = someValue;
}

Personally I prefer the later, but I will use whatever convention is set forth by the organization I work for.

Answer 9

In our shop, we started our first C# project using Microsoft's suggested guideline for private members, i.e.

camelCaseFieldName

But we soon ran into confusion between private members and parameters, and switched to

_camelCaseFieldName

which has worked much better for us.

A private member usually has a state that persists outside of a method call - the leading underscore tends to remind you of that.

Also note that using AutoVariable syntax for properties can minimize the need for private backing fields, i.e.

public int PascalCaseFieldName { get; set;}

For a nice concise set of standards that (mostly) follow the MS guidelines, check out net-naming-conventions-and-programming-standards---best-practices

Answer 10

We use StyleCop to force consistency throughout our code. StyleCop is used within Microsoft enforce a common set of best practices for layout, readability, maintainability, and documentation of C# source code.

You can run StyleCop at build time and have it generate warnings for style violations.

To answer your specific question, private fields should be in camelCase and prefixed with "this".

Answer 11

Have a look at ReSharper. It will underline all the places where your names do not confirm to ordinary guidelines, and you can customize it. Plus, of course there's loads and loads of other productivity enhancements.