Naming convention - underscore in C++ and C# varia

Question

It's common to see a _var variable name in a class field. What does the underscore mean? Is there a reference for all these special naming conventions?

Answer 1

Please DO NOT use UNDERSCORES before any variable name or parameter name in C++!!!

Names beginning with an underscore or a double underscore are RESERVED for the C++ implementers. Names with an underscore are reserved for the library to work.

If you have a read at the C++ Coding Standard, you will see that in the very first page it says:

"Don't overlegislate naming, but do use a consistent naming convention: There are only two must-dos: a) never use "underhanded names," ones that begin with an underscore or that contain a double underscore;" (p2 , C++ Coding Standards, Herb Sutter and Andrei Alexandrescu)

Also, you can see it for yourself why such use of underscores can be disastrous when developing a software.

Try compiling a simple helloWorld.cpp program like this:

g++ -E helloWorld.cpp

You will see all that happens in the background. Here is a snippet:

   ios_base::iostate __err = ios_base::iostate(ios_base::goodbit);
   try
     {
       __streambuf_type* __sb = this->rdbuf();
       if (__sb)
  {
    if (__sb->pubsync() == -1)
      __err |= ios_base::badbit;
    else
      __ret = 0;
  }

You can see how many names begin with double underscore!

Also if you look at virtual member functions, you will see that *_vptr is the pointer generated for the virtual table which automatically gets created when you use one or more virtual member functions in your class! But that's another story...

If you use underscores you might get into conflict issues and you WILL HAVE NO IDEA what's causing it, until it's too late.

Answer 2

As far as the C and C++ languages are concerned there is no special meaning to an underscore in the name (beginning, middle or end). It's just a valid variable name character. The "conventions" come from coding practices within a coding community.

As already indicated by various examples above, _ in the beginning may mean private or protected members of a class in C++.

Let me just give some history that may be fun trivia. In UNIX if you have a core C library function and a kernel back-end where you want to expose the kernel function to user space as well the _ is stuck in front of the function stub that calls the kernel function directly without doing anything else. The most famous and familiar example of this is exit() vs _exit() under BSD and SysV type kernels: There, exit() does user-space stuff before calling the kernel's exit service, whereas _exit just maps to the kernel's exit service.

So _ was used for "local" stuff in this case local being machine-local. Typically _functions() were not portable. In that you should not expect same behaviour across various platforms.

Now as for _ in variable names, such as

int _foo;

Well psychologically, an _ is an odd thing to have to type in the beginning. So if you want to create a variable name that would have a lesser chance of a clash with something else, ESPECIALLY when dealing with pre-processor substitutions you want consider uses of _.

My basic advice would be to always follow the convention of your coding community, so that you can collaborate more effectively.

Answer 3

From my experience (certainly limited), an underscore will indicate that it is a private member variable. As Gollum said, this will depend on the team, though.

Answer 4

_var has no meaning and only serves the purpose of making it easier to distinguish that the variable is a private member variable.

In C++, using the _var convention is bad form, because there are rules governing the use of the underscore in front of an identifier. _var is reserved as a global identifier, while _Var (underscore + capital letter) is reserved anytime. This is why in C++, you'll see people using the var_ convention instead.

Answer 5

It's just a convention some programmers use to make it clear when you're manipulating a member of the class or some other kind of variable (parameters, local to the function, etc). Another convention that's also in wide use for member variables is prefixing the name with 'm_'.

Anyway, these are only conventions and you will not find a single source for all of them. They're a matter of style and each programming team, project or company has their own (or even don't have any).

Answer 6

The Microsoft naming standard for C# says variables and parameters should use the lower camel case form IE: paramName. The standard also calls for fields to follow the same form but this can lead to unclear code so many teams call for an underscore prefix to improve clarity IE: _fieldName.