What are the most common naming conventions in C

Question

What are the naming conventions commonly use in C  I know there are at least two    GNU   linux   K amp R with lower case functions   name   with UpperCaseFoo functions   I am talking about C only here  Most of our projects are small embedded systems in which we use C   Here is the one I am planning on using for my next project     C Naming Convention  Struct              TitleCase Struct Members      lower case or lowerCase  Enum                ETitleCase Enum Members        ALL CAPS or lowerCase  Public functions    pfx TitleCase  pfx   two or three letter module prefix  Private functions   TitleCase Trivial variables   i x n f etc    Local variables     lower case or lowerCase Global variables    g lowerCase or g lower case  searchable by g  prefix

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Here s an  apparently  uncommon one  which I ve found useful  module name in CamelCase  then an underscore  then function or file-scope name in CamelCase  So for example   Bluetooth Init   CommsHub Update   Serial TxBuffer

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There could be many  mainly IDEs dictate some trends and C   conventions are also pushing  For C commonly    UNDERSCORED UPPER CASE  macro definitions  constants  enum members  underscored lower case  variables  functions  CamelCase  custom types  structs  enums  unions  uncappedCamelCase  oppa Java style  UnderScored CamelCase  variables  functions under kind of namespaces    Hungarian notation for globals are fine but not for types  And even for trivial names  please use at least two characters

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You know  I like to keep it simple  but clear    So here s what I use  in C    Trivial Variables  i n c etc     Only one letter  If one letter isn t clear  then make it a Local Variable  Local Variables  lowerCamelCase Global Variables  g lowerCamelCase Const Variables  ALL CAPS Pointer Variables  add a p  to the prefix  For global variables it would be gp var  for local variables p var  for const variables p VAR  If far pointers are used then use an fp  instead of p   Structs  ModuleCamelCase  Module   full module name  or a 2-3 letter abbreviation  but still in CamelCase   Struct Member Variables  lowerCamelCase Enums  ModuleCamelCase Enum Values  ALL CAPS Public Functions  ModuleCamelCase Private Functions  CamelCase Macros  CamelCase   I typedef my structs  but use the same name for  both the tag and the typedef  The tag is not meant to be commonly used   Instead it s preferrable to use the typedef  I also forward declare the typedef in the public module header for encapsulation and so that I can use the typedef d name in the definition     Full struct Example   typdef struct TheName TheName  struct TheName      int var      TheName  p link

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Well firstly C doesn t have public private virtual functions  That s C   and it has different conventions  In C typically you have    Constants in ALL CAPS Underscores to delimit words in structs or function names  hardly ever do you see camel case in C  structs  typedefs  unions  members  of unions and structs  and enum values typically are in lower case  in my experience  rather than the C   Java C  etc convention of making the first letter a capital but I guess it s possible in C too    C   is more complex  I ve seen a real mix here  Camel case for class names or lowercase underscores  camel case is more common in my experience   Structs are used rarely  and typically because a library requires them  otherwise you d use classes

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I m confused by one thing  You re planning to create a new naming convention for a new project  Generally you should have a naming convention that is company- or team-wide  If you already have projects that have any form of naming convention  you should not change the convention for a new project  If the convention above is just codification of your existing practices  then you are golden  The more it differs from existing de facto standards the harder it will be to gain mindshare in the new standard   About the only suggestion I would add is I ve taken a liking to  t at the end of types in the style of uint32 t and size t  It s very C-ish to me although some might complain it s just  reverse  Hungarian

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I think those can help for beginner  Naming convention of variables in c   You have to use Alphabetic Character  a-z  A-Z   Digit  0-9  and Under Score      It   s not allow to use any special Character like             etc  So  you can use user name as variable but cannot use user amp name  Can not use white space between words  So  you can use user name or username or username as variable but cannot use user name  Can not start naming with digit  So  you can use user1 or user2 as variable but cannot use 1user  It is case sensitive language  Uppercase and lowercase are significant  If you use a variable like username then you cannot use USERNAME or Username for father use  You can not use any keyword  char  int  if  for  while etc  for variable declaration   ANSI standard recognizes a length of 31 characters for a variable name

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I would recommend against mixing camel case and underscore separation  like you proposed for struct members   This is confusing  You d think  hey I have get length so I should probably have make subset and then you find out it s actually makeSubset  Use the principle of least astonishment  and be consistent   I do find CamelCase useful to type names  like structs  typedefs and enums  That s about all  though  For all the rest  function names  struct member names  etc   I use underscore separation

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The most important thing here is consistency  That said  I follow the GTK  coding convention  which can be summarized as follows    All macros and constants in caps  MAX BUFFER SIZE  TRACKING ID PREFIX  Struct names and typedef s in camelcase  GtkWidget  TrackingOrder  Functions that operate on structs  classic C style  gtk widget show    tracking order process    Pointers  nothing fancy here  GtkWidget  foo  TrackingOrder  bar  Global variables  just don t use global variables  They are evil  Functions that are there  but shouldn t be called directly  or have obscure uses  or whatever  one or more underscores at the beginning   refrobnicate data tables     destroy cache

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You should also think about the order of the words to make the auto name completion easier   A good practice  library name   module name   action   subject  If a part is not relevant just skip it  but at least a module name and an action always should be presented   Examples    function name  os task set prio  list get size  avg get  define  here usually no action part   OS TASK PRIO MAX

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Coding in C   java  C  C   and objective C at the same time  I ve adopted a very simple and clear naming convention to simplify my life   First of all  it relies on the power of modern IDEs  such as eclipse  Xcode      with the possibility to get fast information by hovering or ctrl click    Accepting that  I suppressed the use of any prefix  suffix and other markers that are simply given by the IDE   Then  the convention    Any names MUST be a readable sentence explaining what you have  Like  this is my convention   Then  4 methods to get a convention out of a sentence   THIS IS MY CONVENTION for macros  enum members ThisIsMyConvention for file name  object name  class  struct  enum  union      function name  method name  typedef this is my convention global and local variables  parameters  struct and union elements thisismyconvention  optional  very local and temporary variables  such like a for   loop index     And that s it   It gives  class MyClass       enum TheEnumeration           FIRST ELEMENT          SECOND ELEMENT             int class variable       int MyMethod int first param  int second parameter            int local variable          TheEnumeration local enum          for int myindex 0  myindex lt class variable  myindex                   localEnum   FIRST ELEMENT

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Struct pointers  aren t entities that need a naming convention clause to cover them  They re just struct WhatEver    DON T hide the fact that there is a pointer involved with a clever and  obvious  typedef  It serves no purpose  is longer to type  and destroys the balance between declaration and access

[c] What are the most common naming conventions in C?

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