Variable Naming Conventions

Question

I am looking for a good resource on variable naming conventions to illustrate variable type and where variables are declared.  So I will have public variables, Private variables, private or local variables.  I also may want to declare variables with the same name in different class code (i.e. in the code behind different forms).  I am assuming good coding would dicatate a prefix for declaration location.

Any ideas?

Thanks

EM

Answer 1

Hello ExcelMonkey,
I hope I got your question correctly as I inferred that you want to know about "Scope and Accessibility ". This is a quick into to each type:

Scope and Accessibility with VB.NET

Working with .NET access modifiers

This is also a useful topic about scope:

Scope with VB.NET

Hope it helps

have a lovely day E.M. :-)

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Waleed El-Badry ,Teaching Assistant, Faculty of Engineering , Misr University for Science & Technology

Answer 2

Hi EM

Ther are many schools out there, some long-standing and venerable and others that claim to be more up with the times.  Honestly, just do a  Google search for ".NET variable naming conventions"...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=.net+variable+naming+conventions&aq=1&oq=.NET+variable+&aqi=g8

...and find what seems best to you.

My style -- I do not use prefixes (hungarian) because VS's intellisense and the IDE in general make it so easy to know what types you are working with as well as their scope.  I name a variable so that it clearly explains its purpose, but sometimes I'll name components with prefixes juts as I do controls.  As for plain, Value-Type variables though I find hungarian prefixes very distracting.  Just MHO.  As for naming things the same between classes - I don't see the problem and I don't see why they would need to be made distinct...  the fact that it is in a different class should be good enough.  But I'd like to hear a good argument to the counter.

When you do choose a style please post back.  I, and I believe others here, would like to know what factors led you to your eventual conclusion.

Answer 3

ExcelMonkey,

If you haven't seen them already here are the .NET 1.1 Naming Guidelines
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xzf533w0(VS.71).aspx

Another reference is the internal coding guidelines Microsoft uses (some are C# specific)
http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/articles/361363.aspx

In short though, prefixes are generally discouraged though I usually prefix class fields with an _ to distinguish them from the Properties that wrap them. VB is a case-insensitive langauge so there isn't a choice on whether to prefix or suffix - you need to use one or the other and rather than only prefix those members which have properties I just prefix them all. Also, in VB10 this _ prefix is used internally by the compiler for auto-implemented properties.

There is no need to use prefixes for declaration location, accessibility, or type - all this information is apparent from usage, qualification, IntelliSense, and conventions, e.g. to access Form2.Name you have to say "Form2" there is no need to name it "Form2.frm2Name", names are typically strings, not numbers or dates, camelCased variables are typically local variables or method parameters and class variables aren't usually public (or even non-private in most cases).

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Anthony D. Green Solution Architect IRC: ##vb.net on FreeNode

Answer 4

Hi EM,

I have proposed the above as the answer as the other blue links in the pages that Anthony D. Green
 points to, deal with the naming conventions in all the other areas as far as I am aware.

For the most part if you are only starting with one FORM programs - applications then variables
 within SUBs and FUNCTIONs will be declared starting wih DIM for the most part, any "at the top" or outside
 of your Subs and Functions will be best left as PRIVATE ( or DIM ).

DIM defaults to PRIVATE at CLASS level anyway. << I think I have mentioned it to you recently?

When you start coding with more than one FORM or other CLASSes, then start to look into learning about PUBLIC
 and SHARED and setting up PROPERTY declarations.

:-)

Classes can use the same PROPERTY name such as TEXT as you have a TEXT
 property for the following ( and others ); BUTTON , LABEL , TEXTBOX , RICHTEXTBOX


Regards,

John