Capitalization Styles
Use the following three conventions for capitalizing identifiers.
Pascal case
The first letter in the identifier and the first letter of each subsequent concatenated word are capitalized. You can use Pascal case for identifiers of three or more characters. For example:
BackColor
Camel case
The first letter of an identifier is lowercase and the first letter of each subsequent concatenated word is capitalized. For example:
backColor
Uppercase
All letters in the identifier are capitalized. Use this convention only for identifiers that consist of two or fewer letters. For example:
System.IO
System.Web.UI
You might also have to capitalize identifiers to maintain compatibility with existing, unmanaged symbol schemes, where all uppercase characters are often used for enumerations and constant values. In general, these symbols should not be visible outside of the assembly that uses them.
The following table summarizes the capitalization rules and provides examples for the different types of identifiers.
| Identifier | Case | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Class | Pascal | AppDomain |
| Enum type | Pascal | ErrorLevel |
| Enum values | Pascal | FatalError |
| Event | Pascal | ValueChange |
| Exception class | Pascal | WebException
Note Always ends with the suffix Exception. |
| Read-only Static field | Pascal | RedValue |
| Interface | Pascal | IDisposable
Note Always begins with the prefix |
| Method | Pascal | ToString |
| Namespace | Pascal | System.Drawing |
| Parameter | Camel | typeName |
| Property | Pascal | BackColor |
| Protected instance field | Camel | redValue
Note Rarely used. A property is preferable to using a protected instance field. |
| Public instance field | Pascal | RedValue
Note Rarely used. A property is preferable to using a public instance field. |
See Also
Design Guidelines for Class Library Developers | Naming Guidelines