Property Naming Guidelines

.NET Framework General Reference

The following rules outline the naming guidelines for properties:

Use a noun or noun phrase to name properties.
Use Pascal case.
Do not use Hungarian notation.
Consider creating a property with the same name as its underlying type. For example, if you declare a property named Color, the type of the property should likewise be Color. See the example later in this topic.

The following code example illustrates correct property naming.

[Visual Basic]

Public Class SampleClass 
   Public Property BackColor As Color
      ' Code for Get and Set accessors goes here.
   End Property
End Class
[C#]
public class SampleClass
{
   public Color BackColor 
   {
      // Code for Get and Set accessors goes here.
   }
}

The following code example illustrates providing a property with the same name as a type.

[Visual Basic]

Public Enum Color 
   ' Insert code for Enum here. 
End Enum
Public Class Control 
   Public Property Color As Color
      Get
         ' Insert code here.
      End Get 
      Set
         ' Insert code here.
      End Set
   End Property
End Class
[C#]
public enum Color 
{
   // Insert code for Enum here.
}
public class Control 
{
   public Color Color 
   { 
      get {// Insert code here.} 
      set {// Insert code here.} 
   }
}

The following code example is incorrect because the property Color is of type Integer.

[Visual Basic]

Public Enum Color 
   ' Insert code for Enum here. 
End Enum
Public Class Control 
   Public Property Color As Integer
      Get
         ' Insert code here.
      End Get 
      Set
         ' Insert code here.
      End Set
   End Property
End Class
[C#]
public enum Color {// Insert code for Enum here.}
public class Control 
{
   public int Color 
   { 
      get {// Insert code here.} 
      set {// Insert code here.}  
   }
}

In the incorrect example, it is not possible to refer to the members of the Color enumeration. Color.Xxx will be interpreted as accessing a member that first gets the value of the Color property (type Integer in Visual Basic or type int in C#) and then accesses a member of that value (which would have to be an instance member of System.Int32).

See Also