What is Naming Conventions?
Names
are the key to program readability for human. Good name
shows clear relationships, meaning is understandable. Meaningful
names save us time during debugging errors in C++ Language.
Class Names
Use
upper case letters as word separators, lower case for the rest of a word, First
character in a name must be upper case, and
No underscores (’ ’) are permitted
For example:
class StoneWood
class PropertyBook
Class Attribute Names
Private
attribute names should be prepended with the character ‘m’ and always precedes
other name modifiers like ’p’ for pointer.
For example:
class CleaningDepartment{
private:
int mPrice;
int mAccountNumber;
String *mpColor;
}
Method and Function Names
Usually
every method and function performs an action, so the name should make
clear what it does:CheckForPrice() instead of PriceCheck(). Each
method/function should begin with a verb.
Tip
Classes are often nouns. By making
function names verbs and following other naming conventions programs can
be read more naturally.
For
example:
class PropertyBook
{
public:
int SetPrice();
void TakeTax();
}
Global Constants
Global
constants should be all caps with Underscore
For example:
const double TWO_PI = 6.28;
No All Upper Case Abbreviations
When
confronted with a situation where you could use an all upper case abbreviation
instead use an initial upper case letter followed by all lower case
letters. No matter what.
Take for
example DatabaseABCKey. Notice how the C from ABC and K from key are confused.
For example:
class DatabaseAbcKey // NOT
DatabaseABCKey
Pointer Variables
Pointers
should be prepended by a ’p’ in most cases. Place the * close to the variable
name rather than the pointer type.
For example:
String *pTax, color, code; // note,
only pTax is a pointer.
Reference Variables and Functions Returning References
References
should be prepended with ’r’.This establishes the difference between a method
returning a modifiable object and the same method name returning a
non-modifiable object.
For example:
class Test{
public:
void TestConveyorStart(StatusInfo& rStatus);
//returns
a modifiable object so requires the ’r’ prefix
StatusInfo& rGetStatus();
//returns
a constant (non-modifiable) object so doesn’t have the ’r’ prefix
const StatusInfo& GetStatus() const;
private:
StatusInfo& mrStatus;
}
