16. The curly braces should be on a separate line and not in the same line as if, for, etc.
1 2 3 4 | if ( ... ) { // Do something } |
17. Use a single space before and after each operator and brackets.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | if ( showResult == true ) { for ( int i = 0; i <10; i++ ) { // } } |
18. Prefix boolean variables, properties and methods with “is” or similar prefixes.
19. Use appropriate prefix for the UI elements so that you can identify them from the rest of the variables
| Control | Prefix | Control | Prefix |
| Label | lbl | Repeater | rep |
| TextBox | txt | Checkbox | chk |
| DataGrid | dtg | CheckBoxList | cbl |
| Button | btn | RadioButton | rdo |
| ImageButton | imb | RadioButtonList | rbl |
| Hyperlink | hlk | Image | img |
| DropDownList | ddl | Panel | pnl |
| ListBox | lst | PlaceHolder | phd |
| DataList | dtl | Table | tbl |
| Validators | val |
20. Use TAB for indentation. Do not use SPACES. Define the Tab size as 4
21. Comments should be in the same level as the code (use the same level of indentation)
22. Curly braces ( {} ) should be in the same level as the code outside the braces. 
23. Use one blank line to separate logical groups of code.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 | Bool SayHello ( string name ) { string fullMessage = "Hello " + name; DateTime currentTime = DateTime.Now; string message = fullMessage + ", the time is : " + currentTime.ToShortTimeString(); MessageBox.Show( message ); if ( ... ) { // Do something // ... return false; } return true; } |
24. The curly braces should be on a separate line and not in the same line as if, for etc.
25. Use a single space before and after each operator and brackets.
26. Use #region to group related pieces of code together. If you use proper grouping using #region, the page should like this when all definitions are collapsed
27. Do not make the member variables public or protected. Keep them private and expose public/protected Properties
28. Do not programmatically click a button to execute the same action you have written in the button click event. Rather, call the same method which is called by the button click event handler.
29. Never hardcode a path or drive name in code. Get the application path programmatically and use relative path
30. Error messages should help the user to solve the problem. Never give error messages like “Error in Application”, “There is an error” etc. Instead give specific messages like “Failed to update database. Please make sure the login id and password are correct.”
31. Avoid public methods and properties, unless they really need to be accessed from outside the class. Use “internal” if they are accessed only within the same assembly.
32. Avoid passing too many parameters to a method. If you have more than 4~5 parameters, it is a good candidate to define a class or structure
33. If you are opening database connections, sockets, file stream etc, always close them in the finally block. This will ensure that even if an exception occurs after opening the connection, it will be safely closed in the finally block
34. Use StringBuilder class instead of String when you have to manipulate string objects in a loop. The String object works in weird way in .NET. Each time you append a string, it is actually discarding the old string object and recreating a new object, which is a relatively expensive operations.
Consider the following example:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | public string ComposeMessage (string[] lines) { string message = String.Empty; for (int i = 0; i <lines.Length; i++) { message += lines [i]; } return message; } |
In the above example, it may look like we are just appending to the string object ‘message’. But what is happening in reality is, the string object is discarded in each iteration and recreated and appending the line to it.
35. If your loop has several iterations, then it is a good idea to use StringBuilder class instead of String object.
See the example where the String object is replaced with StringBuilder.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | public string ComposeMessage (string[] lines) { StringBuilder message = new StringBuilder(); for (int i = 0; i <lines.Length; i++) { message.Append( lines[i] ); } returnmessage.ToString(); } |
These are the basic standards that you must follow while developing in c#. Its not neccessary to follow same rules. You can develop your own for your team. But you must follow some rules when you are developing in a team.
