Form Component Naming Prefix

[MattBaldry]

Hi all,

Just wondered what sort of naming prefixes people use on form components?

Currently I have something like the below.

cmd = Command Button IE cmdAdd, cmdEdit
txt = Text Field IE txtCustomerID, txtCustomerName
lbl = Label IE lblCustomerID, lblCustomerName
cbo = Combo Box IE cboCustomerType, cboCustomerPaymentTerms
lst = List Box IE lstCustomerContacts
img = Image IE imgCustomerLogo

Just wondered what prefix setups others use. Or do people not really bother with this?

~Matt

 

[NauticalGent]

Just wondered what prefix setups others use. Or do people not really bother with this?

Absolutely. Attached is a paper I found years ago that I try to adhere to as much as I can.

 

[Minty]

That is pretty similar to what I use, and I suspect others do.

Someone on here posted up a demo of renaming all form controls based on a similar set of prefixes.
Obviously, you would really want to do this before building any code on the form.

 

[MattBaldry]

Absolutely. Attached is a paper I found years ago that I try to adhere to as much as I can.

Thank you for that document, it is very useful and freaky that having never read anything like this, my OCD has lead me to almost use this same layout.

I think I will stick with what I have and just steal a few of the other things like field names in table prefixed with the data type.

~Matt

 

[NauticalGent]

You're welcome.

I think I will stick with what I have and just steal a few of the other things like field names in table prefixed with the data type.

I tried that but found it tedious and my lack of OCD and copious amount of laziness won the day!

 

[Galaxiom]

my OCD has lead me to almost use this same layout

You hit the nail on the head there. It is largely a fetish, particularly among Access developers. Some get really obsessed with it. It is also popular in Visual Basic but it is rare in other languages.

It was popularised in Access as slightly different flavours by Greg Reddick and Stan Leszynski with the Leszynski Naming Convention being the better known term. The concept was based on a system used by Charles Simonyi for typeless variables in early programming languages which became known as Hungarian Notation.

Some developers like the way the same types of objects are listed together in Intellisense but in my mind this artificially associates objects that nothing to do with each other and makes for more tying before you get to the object you are seeking.

things like field names in table prefixed with the data type.

Why?

 

[Minty]

The main reason I started doing it was to avoid any possibility of ambiguity between the control or underlying field on a form.
Whilst, in theory, it doesn't often cause a problem, I have seen lots of posts over the years where it has caused confusion.

I don't prefix table fields with anything, that seems a total waste of time.
The only exception would be an occasional addition of Txt or Date as a suffix if there are similarly named fields.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Twenty-Five years ago when I was developing with COBOL, I always prefixed all my table columns with a few characters that identified the source table. But, that was before intellisense and Access. The problem with prefixes for column names is they require extra typing before intellisense kicks in and when you open a table or query in DS view all you see are the prefixes which is seriously annoying. I do prefix variable names but mostly because it distinguishes them from table columns and bound controls. As the first part of the prefix, I use a g to indicate that the variable is global and const for constants.

 

[Cronk]

I don't bother renaming labels unless I refer to them in code, in which case it has the same name as the corresponding control except with the prefix lbl.

 

[JonXL]

Consistency is the real key. I use cmb for comboxes, which I suppose could be a dyslexic's nightmare with cmd, but it works well for me.

 

[GinaWhipp]

I use...

Access Diva Naming Conventions

Access-Diva provides custom databases using Microsoft Access utilizing SQL Server when called for.

www.access-diva.com

Since I use use Model Databases with existing Forms not much to do should I add a new control to any one of the Forms. I even names Forms of the like the dame, i.e. frmFilter*** will always be the Form that opens to filter reports by. Naming Forms like that helps me find them easier as some of the databases end with a lot of Forms.

I think the key is finding what works for you.