Naming conventions

Last modified: 11 January 2023

Settings | Editor | Code Style | C/C++, Naming Convention

Scope: IDE-wide (default) or Project-wide

Associated inspection: Inconsistent Naming

Naming convention is a set of rules intended to unify all the symbol names across a piece of code or a project. Each naming rule defines the suffix, prefix, capitalization and compound words spelling for a certain type of identifier.

Note that you can also select the naming convention (along with other code style settings) from a predefined scheme, such as Google or LLVM. See Predefined code styles for details.

Configure naming rules

  1. Open the Naming Convention tab in Settings | Editor | Code Style | C/C++.

  2. Specify naming settings for the entities in your code:

    naming convention settings

    note

    Refer to Header guards for details on header guard templates and settings.

    • You can apply a rule for several entities at a time. Click the Entity Kind field and select multiple options:

      applying naming rule to multiple code entities

      Note that if you clear all the checkboxes, the rule will be applied to all entity kinds. When several rules are applicable to an entity at a given code location, CLion uses the last one from the list.

    • In the Naming Convention field, select the spelling style: lowercase, camelCase, PascalCase, snake_case, Leading_upper_snake_case, Upper_Snake_Case, SCREAMING_SNAKE_CASE, or UPPERCASE.

    • You can also specify separate rules for particular types of some entities (for example, when you use specific naming for private/public class members or static/const variables). For this, set the Visibility and Specifier fields where applicable:

      specifying visibility for member functions

    • If required, specify Prefix and Suffix (for example, 'e_' as a prefix for enums and 't_' for typedefs).

  3. To save the configured style for the current project only, select Project in the Scheme switcher.

CLion will take naming convention settings into account when performing:

Inspect code for violations of the naming rules

You can check your code for consistency with the configured naming convention by using the Inconsistent Naming inspection. By default, this inspection is disabled - to turn it on, go to Settings | Editor | Inspections | C/C++ | General.

When enabled, this inspection highlights the symbols that violate naming rules and suggests quick-fixes to instantly change them:

quick-fix from the inconsistent naming inspection

Also, you can run this inspection separately to check the entire code base or a subset of files. For this, run Code | Inspect Code or invoke the Run Inspection by Name dialog and search for Inconsistent Naming. The results will be listed in the Inspection Results tool window:

inconsistent naming inspection results