C naming convention for constants

Question

private const int THE ANSWER   42    or  private const int theAnswer   42    Personally I think with modern IDEs we should go with camelCase as ALL CAPS looks strange  What do you think

User · Accepted Answer

The recommended naming and capitalization convention is to use PascalCasing for constants (Microsoft has a tool named StyleCop that documents all the preferred conventions and can check your source for compliance - though it is a little bit too anally retentive for many people's tastes). e.g.

private const int TheAnswer = 42;

The Pascal capitalization convention is also documented in Microsoft's Framework Design Guidelines.

User · Answer

In its article Constants  C  Programming Guide   Microsoft gives the following example   class Calendar3       const int months   12      const int weeks   52      const int days   365       const double daysPerWeek    double  days    double  weeks      const double daysPerMonth    double  days    double  months      So  for constants  it appears that Microsoft is recommending the use of camelCasing  But note that these constants are defined locally   Arguably  the naming of externally-visible constants is of greater interest  In practice  Microsoft documents its public constants in the  NET class library as fields  Here are some examples    Int32 MaxValue String Empty  actually  static readonly  Math PI Math E   The first two are examples of PascalCasing  The third appears to follow Microsoft s Capitalization Conventions for a two-letter acronym  although pi is not an acryonym   And the fourth one seems to suggest that the rule for a two-letter acryonym extends to a single letter acronym or identifier such as E  which represents the mathematical constant e    Furthermore  in its Capitalization Conventions document  Microsoft very directly states that field identifiers should be named via PascalCasing and gives the following examples for MessageQueue InfiniteTimeout and UInt32 Min   public class MessageQueue       public static readonly TimeSpan InfiniteTimeout     public struct UInt32       public const Min   0      Conclusion  Use PascalCasing for public constants  which are documented as const or static readonly fields    Finally  as far as I know  Microsoft does not advocate specific naming or capitalization conventions for private identifiers as shown in the examples presented in the question

User · Answer

First  Hungarian Notation is the practice of using a prefix to display a parameter s data type or intended use  Microsoft s naming conventions for says no to Hungarian Notation http   en wikipedia org wiki Hungarian notation http   msdn microsoft com en-us library ms229045 aspx  Using UPPERCASE is not encouraged as stated here  Pascal Case is the acceptable convention and SCREAMING CAPS  http   en wikibooks org wiki C Sharp Programming Naming   Microsoft also states here that UPPERCASE can be used if it is done to match the the existed scheme  http   msdn microsoft com en-us library x2dbyw72 aspx  This pretty much sums it up

User · Answer

Leave Hungarian to the Hungarians   In the example I d even leave out the definitive article and just go with   private const int Answer   42    Is that answer or is that the answer    Made edit as Pascal strictly correct  however I was thinking the question was seeking more of an answer to life  the universe and everything

User · Answer

First  Hungarian Notation is the practice of using a prefix to display a parameter s data type or intended use  Microsoft s naming conventions for says no to Hungarian Notation http   en wikipedia org wiki Hungarian notation http   msdn microsoft com en-us library ms229045 aspx  Using UPPERCASE is not encouraged as stated here  Pascal Case is the acceptable convention and SCREAMING CAPS  http   en wikibooks org wiki C Sharp Programming Naming   Microsoft also states here that UPPERCASE can be used if it is done to match the the existed scheme  http   msdn microsoft com en-us library x2dbyw72 aspx  This pretty much sums it up

User · Answer

The ALL CAPS is taken from the C and C   way of working I believe  This article here explains how the style differences came about   In the new IDE s such as Visual Studio it is easy to identify the types  scope and if they are constant so it is not strictly necessary    The FxCop and Microsoft StyleCop software will help give you guidelines and check your code so everyone works the same way

User · Answer

The ALL CAPS is taken from the C and C   way of working I believe  This article here explains how the style differences came about   In the new IDE s such as Visual Studio it is easy to identify the types  scope and if they are constant so it is not strictly necessary    The FxCop and Microsoft StyleCop software will help give you guidelines and check your code so everyone works the same way

User · Answer

First  Hungarian Notation is the practice of using a prefix to display a parameter s data type or intended use  Microsoft s naming conventions for says no to Hungarian Notation http   en wikipedia org wiki Hungarian notation http   msdn microsoft com en-us library ms229045 aspx  Using UPPERCASE is not encouraged as stated here  Pascal Case is the acceptable convention and SCREAMING CAPS  http   en wikibooks org wiki C Sharp Programming Naming   Microsoft also states here that UPPERCASE can be used if it is done to match the the existed scheme  http   msdn microsoft com en-us library x2dbyw72 aspx  This pretty much sums it up

User · Answer

The ALL CAPS is taken from the C and C   way of working I believe  This article here explains how the style differences came about   In the new IDE s such as Visual Studio it is easy to identify the types  scope and if they are constant so it is not strictly necessary    The FxCop and Microsoft StyleCop software will help give you guidelines and check your code so everyone works the same way

User · Answer

I actually tend to prefer PascalCase here - but out of habit  I m guilty of UPPER CASE

User · Answer

I still go with the uppercase for const values  but this is more out of habit than for any particular reason    Of course it makes it easy to see immediately that something is a const  The question to me is  Do we really need this information  Does it help us in any way to avoid errors  If I assign a value to the const  the compiler will tell me I did something dumb    My conclusion  Go with the camel casing  Maybe I will change my style too  -   Edit   That something smells hungarian is not really a valid argument  IMO  The question should always be  Does it help  or does it hurt   There are cases when hungarian helps  Not that many nowadays  but they still exist

User · Answer

Actually  it is   private const int TheAnswer   42    At least if you look at the  NET library  which IMO is the best way to decide naming conventions - so your code doesn t look out of place

User · Answer

The ALL CAPS is taken from the C and C   way of working I believe  This article here explains how the style differences came about   In the new IDE s such as Visual Studio it is easy to identify the types  scope and if they are constant so it is not strictly necessary    The FxCop and Microsoft StyleCop software will help give you guidelines and check your code so everyone works the same way

User · Answer

Actually  it is   private const int TheAnswer   42    At least if you look at the  NET library  which IMO is the best way to decide naming conventions - so your code doesn t look out of place

User · Answer

I still go with the uppercase for const values  but this is more out of habit than for any particular reason    Of course it makes it easy to see immediately that something is a const  The question to me is  Do we really need this information  Does it help us in any way to avoid errors  If I assign a value to the const  the compiler will tell me I did something dumb    My conclusion  Go with the camel casing  Maybe I will change my style too  -   Edit   That something smells hungarian is not really a valid argument  IMO  The question should always be  Does it help  or does it hurt   There are cases when hungarian helps  Not that many nowadays  but they still exist

User · Answer

Actually  it is   private const int TheAnswer   42    At least if you look at the  NET library  which IMO is the best way to decide naming conventions - so your code doesn t look out of place

User · Answer

I actually tend to prefer PascalCase here - but out of habit  I m guilty of UPPER CASE

User · Answer

Leave Hungarian to the Hungarians   In the example I d even leave out the definitive article and just go with   private const int Answer   42    Is that answer or is that the answer    Made edit as Pascal strictly correct  however I was thinking the question was seeking more of an answer to life  the universe and everything

User · Answer

First  Hungarian Notation is the practice of using a prefix to display a parameter s data type or intended use  Microsoft s naming conventions for says no to Hungarian Notation http   en wikipedia org wiki Hungarian notation http   msdn microsoft com en-us library ms229045 aspx  Using UPPERCASE is not encouraged as stated here  Pascal Case is the acceptable convention and SCREAMING CAPS  http   en wikibooks org wiki C Sharp Programming Naming   Microsoft also states here that UPPERCASE can be used if it is done to match the the existed scheme  http   msdn microsoft com en-us library x2dbyw72 aspx  This pretty much sums it up

User · Answer

Visually  Upper Case is the way to go  It is so recognizable that way  For the sake of uniqueness and leaving no chance for guessing  I vote for UPPER CASE   const int THE ANSWER   42    Note  The Upper Case will be useful when constants are to be used within the same file at the top of the page and for intellisense purposes  however  if they were to be moved to an independent class  using Upper Case would not make much difference  as an example    public static class Constant       public static readonly int Cons1   1      public static readonly int coNs2   2      public static readonly int cOns3   3      public static readonly int CONS4   4        Call constants from anywhere    Since the class has a unique and recognizable name  Upper Case might lose its charm private void DoSomething    var getCons1   Constant Cons1  var getCons2   Constant coNs2  var getCons3   Constant cOns3  var getCons4   Constant CONS4

User · Answer

Leave Hungarian to the Hungarians   In the example I d even leave out the definitive article and just go with   private const int Answer   42    Is that answer or is that the answer    Made edit as Pascal strictly correct  however I was thinking the question was seeking more of an answer to life  the universe and everything

User · Answer

I actually tend to prefer PascalCase here - but out of habit  I m guilty of UPPER CASE

User · Answer

In its article Constants  C  Programming Guide   Microsoft gives the following example   class Calendar3       const int months   12      const int weeks   52      const int days   365       const double daysPerWeek    double  days    double  weeks      const double daysPerMonth    double  days    double  months      So  for constants  it appears that Microsoft is recommending the use of camelCasing  But note that these constants are defined locally   Arguably  the naming of externally-visible constants is of greater interest  In practice  Microsoft documents its public constants in the  NET class library as fields  Here are some examples    Int32 MaxValue String Empty  actually  static readonly  Math PI Math E   The first two are examples of PascalCasing  The third appears to follow Microsoft s Capitalization Conventions for a two-letter acronym  although pi is not an acryonym   And the fourth one seems to suggest that the rule for a two-letter acryonym extends to a single letter acronym or identifier such as E  which represents the mathematical constant e    Furthermore  in its Capitalization Conventions document  Microsoft very directly states that field identifiers should be named via PascalCasing and gives the following examples for MessageQueue InfiniteTimeout and UInt32 Min   public class MessageQueue       public static readonly TimeSpan InfiniteTimeout     public struct UInt32       public const Min   0      Conclusion  Use PascalCasing for public constants  which are documented as const or static readonly fields    Finally  as far as I know  Microsoft does not advocate specific naming or capitalization conventions for private identifiers as shown in the examples presented in the question

User · Answer

Visually  Upper Case is the way to go  It is so recognizable that way  For the sake of uniqueness and leaving no chance for guessing  I vote for UPPER CASE   const int THE ANSWER   42    Note  The Upper Case will be useful when constants are to be used within the same file at the top of the page and for intellisense purposes  however  if they were to be moved to an independent class  using Upper Case would not make much difference  as an example    public static class Constant       public static readonly int Cons1   1      public static readonly int coNs2   2      public static readonly int cOns3   3      public static readonly int CONS4   4        Call constants from anywhere    Since the class has a unique and recognizable name  Upper Case might lose its charm private void DoSomething    var getCons1   Constant Cons1  var getCons2   Constant coNs2  var getCons3   Constant cOns3  var getCons4   Constant CONS4

User · Answer

I still go with the uppercase for const values  but this is more out of habit than for any particular reason    Of course it makes it easy to see immediately that something is a const  The question to me is  Do we really need this information  Does it help us in any way to avoid errors  If I assign a value to the const  the compiler will tell me I did something dumb    My conclusion  Go with the camel casing  Maybe I will change my style too  -   Edit   That something smells hungarian is not really a valid argument  IMO  The question should always be  Does it help  or does it hurt   There are cases when hungarian helps  Not that many nowadays  but they still exist

User · Answer

I still go with the uppercase for const values  but this is more out of habit than for any particular reason    Of course it makes it easy to see immediately that something is a const  The question to me is  Do we really need this information  Does it help us in any way to avoid errors  If I assign a value to the const  the compiler will tell me I did something dumb    My conclusion  Go with the camel casing  Maybe I will change my style too  -   Edit   That something smells hungarian is not really a valid argument  IMO  The question should always be  Does it help  or does it hurt   There are cases when hungarian helps  Not that many nowadays  but they still exist

User · Answer

I actually tend to prefer PascalCase here - but out of habit  I m guilty of UPPER CASE

User · Answer

Actually  it is   private const int TheAnswer   42    At least if you look at the  NET library  which IMO is the best way to decide naming conventions - so your code doesn t look out of place

User · Answer

Leave Hungarian to the Hungarians   In the example I d even leave out the definitive article and just go with   private const int Answer   42    Is that answer or is that the answer    Made edit as Pascal strictly correct  however I was thinking the question was seeking more of an answer to life  the universe and everything

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