Enum Naming Convention - Plural

Question

I m asking this question despite having read similar but not exactly what I want at C  naming convention for enum and matching property  I found I have a tendency to name enums in plural and then  use  them as singular  example   public enum EntityTypes     Type1  Type2    public class SomeClass            some codes         public EntityTypes EntityType  get  set        Of course it works and this is my style  but can anyone find potential problem with such convention  I do have an  ugly  naming with the word  Status  though   public enum OrderStatuses     Pending  Fulfilled  Error  Blah  Blah    public class SomeClass            some codes         public OrderStatuses OrderStatus  get  set        Additional Info  Maybe my question wasn t clear enough  I often have to think hard when naming the variables of the my defined enum types  I know the best practice  but it doesn t help to ease my job of naming those variables   I can t possibly expose all my enum properties  say  Status   as  MyStatus    My question  Can anyone find potential problem with my convention described above  It is NOT about best practice   Question rephrase   Well  I guess I should ask the question this way  Can someone come out a good generic way of naming the enum type such that when used  the naming of the enum  instance  will be pretty straightforward

User · Answer

Coming in a bit late     There s an important difference between your question and the one you mention  which I asked  -    You put the enum definition out of the class  which allows you to have the same name for the enum and the property   public enum EntityType      Type1  Type2      public class SomeClass      public EntityType EntityType  get  set      This is legal      In this case  I d follow the MS guidelins and use a singular name for the enum  plural for flags   It s probaby the easiest solution   My problem  in the other question  is when the enum is defined in the scope of the class  preventing the use of a property named exactly after the enum

User · Answer

In general  the best practice recommendation is singular  except for those enums that have the  Flags  attribute attached to them   and which therefore can contain bit fields   which should be plural   After reading your edited question  I get the feeling you may think the property name or variable name has to be different from the enum type name    It doesn t   The following is perfectly fine        public enum Status   New  Edited  Approved  Cancelled  Closed      public class Order           private Status stat        public Status Status                   get   return stat             set   stat   value

User · Answer

Microsoft recommends using singular for Enums unless the Enum represents bit fields  use the FlagsAttribute as well   See Enumeration Type Naming Conventions  a subset of Microsoft s Naming Guidelines    To respond to your clarification  I see nothing wrong with either of the following   public enum OrderStatus   Pending  Fulfilled  Error     public class SomeClass        public OrderStatus OrderStatus   get  set        or  public enum OrderStatus   Pending  Fulfilled  Error     public class SomeClass       public OrderStatus Status   get  set

User · Answer

If you are trying to write straightforward  yet forbidden code like this       public class Person               public enum Gender                       Male              Female                     Won t compile  auto-property has same name as enum         public Gender Gender   get  set              Your options are    Ignore the MS recommendation and use a prefix or suffix on the enum name     public class Person       public enum GenderEnum               Male          Female           public GenderEnum Gender   get  set       Move the enum definition outside the class  preferably into another class  Here is an easy solution to the above   public class Characteristics       public enum Gender               Male          Female         public class Person       public Characteristics Gender Gender   get  set

User · Answer

I started out naming enums in the plural but have since changed to singular  Just seems to make more sense in the context of where they re used   enum Status   Unknown   0  Incomplete  Ready    Status myStatus   Status Ready    Compare to   Statuses myStatus   Statuses Ready    I find the singular form to sound more natural in context  We are in agreement that when declaring the enum  which happens in one place  we re thinking  this is a group of whatevers   but when using it  presumably in many places  that we re thinking  this is one whatever

User · Answer

Best Practice - use singular  You have a list of items that make up an Enum  Using an item in the list sounds strange when you say Versions 1 0  It makes more sense to say Version 1 0 since there is only one 1 0 Version

User · Answer

On the other thread C  naming convention for enum and matching property someone pointed out what I think is a very good idea     I know my suggestion goes against the  NET Naming conventions  but I personally prefix enums with  E  and enum flags with  F   similar to how we prefix Interfaces with  I

User · Answer

This is one of the few places that I disagree with the convention enough to go against it  TBH  I HATE that the definition of an enum and the instance of it can have the same name  I postfix all of my Enums with  Enum  specifically because it makes it clear what the context of it is in any given usage  IMO it makes the code much more readable   public enum PersonTypesEnum       smart      sad      funny      angry     public class Person          public PersonTypesEnum PersonType  get  set       Nobody will ever confuse what is the enum and what is the instance of it

User · Answer

The situation never really applies to plural   An enum shows an attribute of something or another  I ll give an example   enum Humour     Irony    Sarcasm    Slapstick    Nothing     You can have one type  but try think of it in the multiple  rather than plural   Humour Irony   Humour Sarcasm  Rather than  Humours   Irony  Sarcasm    You have a sense of humour  you don t have a sense of humours

[c#] Enum Naming Convention - Plural

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