C# Coding Practices

This document explains the coding styles, naming conventions and programming practices for the .NET C# language. Consistent naming conventions and practices greatly increase predictability and discoverability. This document is based on Microsoft's document on coding standards. This is the coding standards and practices that I use on a day to day basis.

Capitalization Styles Defined

Pascal case

The first letter of an identifier and the first letter of each subsequent concatenated word is capitalized.

    Example:  ForeColor, BackColor

Camel case

The first letter of an identifier is lowercase and the first letter of each subsequent concatenated word is capitalized.

    Example: strValue, intNumberOfDays

Uppercase

All letters in the identifier are capitalized

    Example: ID, PI

Hungarian Type Notation

Hungarian notation is a naming convention in which the name of a variable indicates its type and intended use. It is in fact, a commenting technique. Note that using Hungarian notation for the sake of using it will result in obfuscating your code.

    Example: strFirstName, bIsMarried

The Big Picture is to be able to tell a story using your class without relying on heavy commenting. For instance, lets focus our attention to the Circle class depicted below.

namespace MyCompany.Shapes
{
   public class Circle
   {
      private int _iRadius;
      public const double PI = 3.14159;

      public Circle()
      {
         this._iRadius = -1;
      }

      public int Radius
      {
         get
         {
            return this._iRadius;
         }
         set
         {
            this._iRadius = value;
         }
      }

      public Double GetArea()
      {
         if(this._iRadius < 0)
         {
             return 0;
         }
         return PI * Math.Pow(this._iRadius, 2);
      }
   }
}

Just by looking at the namespace, we are able to determine that the Circle object is classified as a Shape. Notice the access modifer of the class. What does this say about how the developer intended for his/her class to be used? Moving our attention to the constructor, we can see that the Circle object is dependent on a radius of integer type. And we know this, because the developer used Hungarian notation. This means that we will be sure to set this property before calling "GetArea." Spend a few minutes and see what else you can find out about this Object by simply focusing on the naming conventions and styles.


Above demonstrates why using naming conventions in your code is extremely important. It saves time, mandates consistency, allows for quick interfacing, and can even save a corporation millions of dollars.

Primitive Type Notation

    sbyte          sy
    short          s
    int            i
    long           l
    byte           y
    ushort         us
    uint           ui
    ulong          ul
    float          f
    double         d
    decimal        dec
    bool           b
    char           c

Visual Control Type Notation

Notation was developed by the Microsoft special interest group

    Assembly                                asm
    Boolean                                 bln
    Button                                  btn
    Char                                    ch
    CheckBox                                cbx
    ComboBox                                cmb
    Container                               ctr
    DataColumn                              dcol
    DataGrid                                dgrid
    DataGridDateTimePickerColumn            dgdtpc
    DataGridTableStyle                      dgts
    DataGridTextBoxColumn                   dgtbc
    DataReader                              dreader
    DataRow                                 drow
    DataSet                                 dset
    DataTable                               dtable
    DateTime                                date
    Dialog                                  dialog
    DialogResult                            dr
    Double                                  dbl
    Exception                               ex
    GroupBox                                gbx
    HashTable                               htbl
    ImageList                               iml
    Integer                                 int
    Label                                   lbl
    ListBox                                 lbx
    ListView                                lv
    MarshallByRefObject                     rmt
    Mainmenu                                mm
    MenuItem                                mi
    MDI-Frame                               frame
    MDI-Sheet                               sheet
    NumericUpDown                           nud
    Panel                                   pnl
    PictureBox                              pbx
    RadioButton                             rbtn
    SDI-Form                                form
    SqlCommand                              sqlcom
    SqlCommandBuilder                       sqlcomb
    SqlConnection                           sqlcon
    SqlDataAdapter                          sqlda
    StatusBar                               stb
    String                                  str
    StringBuilder                           strb
    TabControl                              tabctrl
    TabPage                                 tabpage
    TextBox                                 tbx
    ToolBar                                 tbr
    ToolBarButton                           tbb
    Timer                                   tmr
    UserControl                             usr
    WindowsPrincipal                        wpl



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