The general rule we follow is "use Visual Studio defaults".
- We use Allman style braces, where each brace begins on a new line. A single line statement block can go without braces but the block must be properly indented on its own line and it must not be nested in other statement blocks that use braces (See issue 381 for examples).
- We use four spaces of indentation (no tabs).
- We use
_camelCase
for internal and private fields and usereadonly
where possible. Prefix instance fields with_
, static fields withs_
and thread static fields witht_
. When used on static fields,readonly
should come afterstatic
(e.g.static readonly
notreadonly static
). - We avoid
this.
unless absolutely necessary. - We always specify the visibility, even if it's the default (e.g.
private string _foo
notstring _foo
). Visibility should be the first modifier (e.g.public abstract
notabstract public
). - Namespace imports should be specified at the top of the file, outside of
namespace
declarations and should be sorted alphabetically. - Avoid more than one empty line at any time. For example, do not have two blank lines between members of a type.
- Avoid spurious free spaces. For example avoid
if (someVar == 0)...
, where the dots mark the spurious free spaces. Consider enabling "View White Space (Ctrl+E, S)" if using Visual Studio, to aid detection. - If a file happens to differ in style from these guidelines (e.g. private members are named
m_member
rather than_member
), the existing style in that file takes precedence. - We only use
var
when it's obvious what the variable type is (e.g.var stream = new FileStream(...)
notvar stream = OpenStandardInput()
). - We use language keywords instead of BCL types (e.g.
int, string, float
instead ofInt32, String, Single
, etc) for both type references as well as method calls (e.g.int.Parse
instead ofInt32.Parse
). See issue 391 for examples. - We use PascalCasing to name all our constant local variables and fields. The only exception is for interop code where the constant value should exactly match the name and value of the code you are calling via interop.
- We use
nameof(...)
instead of"..."
whenever possible and relevant. - Fields should be specified at the top within type declarations.
- When including non-ASCII characters in the source code use Unicode escape sequences (\uXXXX) instead of literal characters. Literal non-ASCII characters occasionally get garbled by a tool or editor.
- Do not use labels (e.g. for goto).