I have a problem how to go about naming my namespaces and classes. I already figured they shouldn’t both have the same name, as it causes all kinds of problems. Most notable problem for me is that I need to fully qualify the class or make an alias. Here is what I have:
Model.DataSource.DataSource
Model.DataSource.FileSystemDataSource
Model.DataSource.JsonDataSource
Model.DataSource.XmlDataSource
Model.DataSource.DataSourceConstraints
Model.DataSource.DataSourceStorage
Model.DataSource.DataTable
... // more others
Model.QueryStorage.QueryStorage
Model.QueryStorage.FileSystemQueryStorage
... // more others
Model.Project.Project
Model.Project.ProjectFactory
As you can see, I have 3 classes that are named same as packages they are in. Two of them are interfaces so I could consider prefixing them with I but I really don’t like this convention. I also heared the proposition to name package like ProjectUtils or something. But I think these are not utils, they are legit domain objects. I could alias, with using but what is a better name for Project than Project?
I can’t figure out a way to have sensible names for my classes without duplicates.
6
You’re right that you shouldn’t name the namespace the same as a type it contains. I think there are several approaches you can use:
-
Pluralize:
Model.DataSources.DataSourceThis works especially well if the primary purpose of the namespace is to contain types that inherit from the same base type or implement the same interface.
-
Shorten:
Model.QueryStorageIf a namespace contains only a small number of types, maybe you don’t need that namespace at all.
-
Make enterprisey:
Model.ProjectSystem.ProjectThis can work especially for features that are important part of your product, so they deserve their own name.
Two of them are interfaces so I could consider prefixing them with
Ibut I really don’t like this convention.
You really should, if your code is used by others (i.e. it’s a library) or if you don’t want to confuse newcomers to your code.
.NET design guidelines requires I prefix for interfaces. It recommends singular form for classes (Collection suffix for everything implementing IEnumerable) and plural form for namespaces.
4
You need to prefix namespace names with a company name to prevent namespaces from different companies from having the same name.
examples:
Fabrikam.Math
Litware.Security
eventually your namespace must have this structure:
<Company>.(<Product>|<Technology>)[.<Feature>][.<Subnamespace>]
2