ThoughtlessName

Summary

Avoid giving a name that is too facile or thoughtless to the identifiers of local variables and parameters.

Default severity

Warning

Description

Consider a good name for each local variable. The name of the identifiers must not be too easy as a typical sample code. This rule reports the following cases:

• The identifier of local variables and parameters must not be an acronym of the type name if it is composed of two letters or more. For example, use b or builder for the identifier whose type is StringBuilder, rather than sb.
• Hungarian notation must not be used. For example, do not use int iResult.
• The identifiers specified with the configuration file StyleChecker.xml must not be used.

You can specify identifiers which are not allowed to use, with the configuration file StyleChecker.xml. For example, if you would like to make sure that flag and flags are not used for identifiers, edit StyleChecker.xml file as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<config xmlns="https://maroontress.com/StyleChecker/config.v1">
  ⋮
  <ThoughtlessName>
    <disallow id="flag"/>
    <disallow id="flags"/>
  </ThoughtlessName>
  ⋮
</config>

The ThoughtlessName element can have disallow elements as its child elements, and the id attribute of the disallow element specifies the identifier that is not allowed to use.

Code fix

The code fix is not provided.

Example

Diagnostic

public void Method(Stream inputStream)
{
    var sb = new StringBuilder();
    var br = new BinaryReader(inputStream);

    var iResult = "hello".IndexOf('e');
    ⋮

See also

• General Naming Conventions [1]

  Word Choice

  • ✓ DO NOT use Hungarian notation.

  Using Abbreviations and Acronyms

  • X DO NOT use abbreviations or contractions as part of identifier names. For example, use GetWindow rather than GetWin.
  • X DO NOT use any acronyms that are not widely accepted, and even if they are, only when necessary.

References

[1] Microsoft, .NET Framework Design Guidelines