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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-15T07:51:56+00:00

I have recently started using ReSharper which is a fantastic tool. Today I came

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I have recently started using ReSharper which is a fantastic tool.
Today I came across a naming rule for static fields, namely prefixing with an underscore, i.e. 

private static string _myString;
  1. Is this really the standard way to name static variables?
    If so, is it just personal preference and style, or does it have some sort of lower level impact? E.g. Compilation JIT etc?
  2. Where does this style originate from?
    I have always associated it with C++, is that correct?
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  1. Editorial Team

    The Microsoft guidelines are silent about private fields, they are only concerned with publicly visible members.

    Common conventions are camelCase, _camelCase and even sometimes the hangover from C++/MFC m_camelCase.

    If you use camelCase without a prefix, your property backing fields will differ from the property name only in case, which is not a problem in C#, but won’t work in a case-insensitive language like VB.NET.

    So many people, including myself, like to use an underscore prefix so that the same standards can be used in all languages. In my experience, underscore is much more common than m_.

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