Question

I have a property “EntityID” in a class. Resharper (5.1) says

Name ‘EntityID’ does not match rule
‘Methods, properties and events’.
Suggested name is ‘EntityId’.

But IMHO according to the naming conventions in the Design Guidelines for Class Library Developers. ‘EntityID’ should be perfectly fine:

• Do not use acronyms that are not generally accepted in the computing
  field.
• Where appropriate, use well-known acronyms to replace lengthy phrase
  names. For example, use UI for User
  Interface and OLAP for On-line
  Analytical Processing.
• When using acronyms, use Pascal case or camel case for acronyms more than
  two characters long. For example, use
  HtmlButton or htmlButton. However, you
  should capitalize acronyms that
  consist of only two characters, such
  as System.IO instead of System.Io.
• Do not use abbreviations in identifiers or parameter names. If you
  must use abbreviations, use camel case
  for abbreviations that consist of more
  than two characters, even if this
  contradicts the standard abbreviation
  of the word

*Update: * The latest version of the guidelines also say:

Do capitalize both characters of two-character acronyms, except the
first word of a camel-cased identifier.
A property named DBRate is an example of a short acronym (DB) used
as the first word of a Pascal-cased
identifier. A parameter named
ioChannel is an example of a short
acronym (IO) used as the first word of
a camel-cased identifier.

Am I understanding the guidelines correctly? If so, how can I make ReSharper accept “EntityID” (well known two letter acronym) but reject “HTMLReader” (it should be HtmlReader).

Answer 1

Do you want to stick to the recommendations of the Framework Design Guidelines, or do you want to use uppercase ID regardless?

The latest version of the guidelines has this to say:

The two abbreviations that can be used
in identifiers are ID and OK. In
Pascal-cased identifiers they should
appear as Id, and Ok. If used as
the first word in a camel-cased
identifier, they should appear as id
and ok, respectively.

So it seems that ReSharper is correct in the case of Id.

Out of interest, ReSharper also recommends that two character acronyms follow the same casing rules. This is at odds with the guidelines: “Do capitalize both characters of two-character acronyms, except the first word of a camel-cased identifier.”