#958 – Naming Conventions for Identifiers

By convention, readable C# code typically uses some naming convention for identifiers in the code.

Identifiers in your code include:

• Type names (class, struct, interface, delegate, enum)
• Class members (methods, properties, constants, fields, events)
• Local variables

Recommended rules for identifier naming:

• Limit to alphanumeric (e.g. ‘a’..’z’, ‘A’..’Z’, ‘0’..’9′)
• Begin identifier with an alphabetic character
• No abbreviations within identifier
• Longer identifiers are typically more clear (within reason)

Identifiers should use either PascalCasing or camelCasing:

• PascalCasing
  • Capitalize first letter of each word
  • Capitalize only first letter of 3+ letter acronyms
  • e.g. MyLogFileWriter
• camelCasing
  • Capitalize first letter of all but first word
  • First letter of first word is lowercase
  • Capitalize only first letter of 3+ letter acronyms
  • e.g. pathToLogFile

Recommended:

• PascalCasing for
  • Type Names  (but prefix interfaces with ‘I’)
  • Methods, Properties, Constants, Events, and public Fields
• camelCasing for
  • Private fields, local variables, and method parameters