Naming style

Configure naming rules

Out of the box, JetBrains Rider provides a naming rule for each type of identifier. These rules are based on the Microsoft Naming Guidelines, .NET Platform Coding Style, and various best practices.

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Note that there is no strict correspondence between JetBrains Rider naming-rule defaults and any of the above mentioned guidelines.

If your personal preferences or company standards differ from JetBrains Rider defaults, you can configure the naming style in a flexible way: for each type of identifier you can choose capitalization rules, prefixes and suffixes, variations for different access rights, abbreviations to preserve, and more.

Your naming style preferences are saved using the mechanism of layer-based settings. Among other things, this mechanism allows you to maintain different preferences for different solutions as well as to keep these preferences under a VCS and automatically share them with your team members.

Use EditorConfig to configure naming rules

If you use EditorConfig to maintain code styles for your project, you can also configure naming rules from .editorconfig files.

To configure naming rules from EditorConfig, you have to select the Read settings from editorconfig, project settings and rule sets checkbox on the Editor | Inspection Settings page of JetBrains Rider settings Ctrl+Alt+S.

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To disable naming style checkup in the specific scope, use the following property:

resharper_inconsistent_naming_highlighting=none

You can also export naming styles that you already configured in JetBrains Rider settings to an .editorconfig file.

Naming style settings in .editorconfig files are configured using the properties of .NET naming conventions for EditorConfig: dotnet_naming_rule.*, dotnet_naming_style.*, dotnet_naming_symbols.* — will work if the specified kinds of symbols can be matched by kinds of symbols available in JetBrains Rider naming settings.

In addition to that, JetBrains Rider can use a number of custom properties to support cases not covered by .NET naming conventions. These properties mainly appear in .editorconfig files when you export JetBrains Rider naming settings.

• import_to_resharper

  This suffix allows specifying whether a specific property should be ignored by JetBrains Rider (true or false).

  When JetBrains Rider exports its settings to editorconfig, it could also write as_predefined — don't change that manually. Example: dotnet_naming_rule.protected_rule_rule.import_to_resharper = false

• resharper_description

  Allows specifying a rule description for tooltips. Example: dotnet_naming_rule.protected_rule_rule.resharper_description = Something

• resharper_guid

  JetBrains Rider can use this property when exporting, do not change it manually. Example: dotnet_naming_rule.protected_rule_rule.resharper_guid = eb5720f3-bc0a-442d-9f3c-8dc32b7c5c12

• resharper_style

  Allows specifying a list of possible styles, which can extend the list of .NET naming styles. Each style could be "style" or "prefix + style + suffix" or "prefix + style" or "style + suffix".

  A style can be one of AaBb, AaBb_AaBb, AaBb_aaBb, aaBb, aaBb_AaBb, aaBb_aaBb, AA_BB, aa_bb, Aa_bb

  You can add :do_not_check at the end of the list to disable inspections.

  Example: dotnet_naming_rule.protected_rule_rule.resharper_style = AA_BB, aa_bb, I+AaBb, aaBb_AaBb, AaBb+Local

• resharper_applicable_kinds

  Identifier kind to apply the naming rule to: namespace, type, test_type, class, pure_class, record, struct, interface, delegate, enum, type_member, test_member, method, async_method, extension_method, property, event, any_field, field (simple field, not readonly or constant), readonly_field, constant_field, unity_serialised_field (if the Unity Support plugin is enabled), enum_member local, local_variable, catch_variable, local_constant, parameter, lambda_parameter, label, type_parameter, local_function

  Example: dotnet_naming_symbols.protected_rule_symbols.resharper_applicable_kinds = pure_class

• resharper_required_modifiers

  static, instance (none, one of these or both). Example: dotnet_naming_symbols.protected_rule_symbols.resharper_required_modifiers = static, instance

• resharper_csharp_naming_rule

  Use the same value as for resharper_style, but this setting could only be used to specify one of predefined rules: types_and_namespaces, interfaces, type_parameters, method, property, event, locals, local_constants, parameters, public_fields, private_instance_fields, private_static_fields, constants, private_constants, static_readonly, private_static_readonly, enum_member, local_functions, other

  Example: resharper_csharp_naming_rule.private_instance_fields = I+AaBb_AaBb,_+aaBb:do_not_check

As EditorConfig convention suggests, JetBrains Rider will apply naming rules defined in files named .editorconfig in the directory of the current file and in all its parent directories until it reaches the root filepath or finds an EditorConfig file with root=true. File masks specified in .editorconfig files, for example *Test.cs are also taken into account.

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Naming style settings from .editorconfig files have higher priority than the settings configured on the Editor | Code Style | C# | Naming page of JetBrains Rider settings Ctrl+Alt+S.

Ignore uppercase abbreviations that conflict with a CamelCase naming style

Sometimes you may want to use uppercase abbreviations, acronyms, or initialisms (such as MS for MicroSoft) in CamelCase symbol names. By default, JetBrains Rider detects that as inconsistent camel casing because several uppercase letters go in a row:

To avoid that, you can configure the list of abbreviations to be ignored by the naming style inspection.

It is important to note that uppercase abbreviations should not contradict the naming style defined for specific kind of identifier.

For example, if you added MS to the ignored abbreviations, MSBuilder will be an acceptable name for identifiers with the UpperCamelCase style, but not for identifiers with lowerCamelCase or all_lower naming styles.

Similarly, myMSBuilder will be OK for lowerCamelCase- but not for UpperCamelCase-styled identifiers.

Detect and fix violations of naming rules

JetBrains Rider uses the 'Inconsistent Naming' code inspection to detect violations of naming rules in your code. By default, this inspection is always applied during the design-time code inspection and highlights the detected violations as warnings in the editor. For example, according to the default style, names of interfaces should have 'I' prefix. If an interface name does not match this rule, JetBrains Rider highlights this name and informs you about the problem when you hover the mouse over it:

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You can disable the 'Inconsistent Naming' inspection by clearing the corresponding checkbox in the 'Pencils' widget.

If you want to find naming style violations beyond the current file, you can run the 'Inconsistent Naming' inspection in the project or in the entire solution.

For most of the naming style violations highlighted in the editor, JetBrains Rider suggests a quick-fix with a conforming name. You can press Alt+Enter and choose Rename to [conforming name] in the action list.

Automatic correction of naming style violations can also be performed in the current file, project or solution using the fix in scope feature.

However, if the symbol with the calculated conforming name already exists in the same namespace, the quick-fix is not suggested. You can fix the naming of such symbol with the Rename refactoring.

Configure and disable automatic checkup of naming rules

If you do not want JetBrains Rider to check naming style in the existing codebase, you can either disable the code inspection that is responsible for it, or disable the automatic checkup of a specific rule. However, even if the automatic checkup is disabled, all naming rules will be respected when JetBrains Rider helps you produce new code with code completion, generation, refactorings, and templates.

Use C# naming rules from existing code

If you check out a solution from a public repo or temporarily join a team where a different code naming style is established, you will probably want to follow naming rules in this solution but at the same time not to change your globally configured naming rules.

JetBrains Rider will handle such situations automatically — when you open a new solution where symbol naming differs from your global settings, it will detect the naming rules that diverge from your global settings, modify these rules accordingly, and then save the modified rules to the 'Solution personal' settings layer (.sln.DotSettings.user file next to the solution).

If this happens when you open a new solution, JetBrains Rider will show a notification in the editor:

You can click Undo to revert these modifications or Configure to open the corresponding settings page ( Editor | Code Style | C# | Naming). On this settings page, the rules that were changed based on the solution code are highlighted with yellow. If you want to use JetBrains Rider's default naming rules or configure naming style in your own way, clear the Use auto-detected rules checkbox.