What are the most common naming conventions in C?

JeffV picture JeffV · Nov 12, 2009 · Viewed 158.2k times · Source

What are the naming conventions commonly use in C? I know there are at least two:

  1. GNU / linux / K&R with lower_case_functions
  2. ? name ? with UpperCaseFoo functions

I am talking about C only here. Most of our projects are small embedded systems in which we use C.

Here is the one I am planning on using for my next project:


C Naming Convention

Struct              TitleCase
Struct Members      lower_case or lowerCase

Enum                ETitleCase
Enum Members        ALL_CAPS or lowerCase

Public functions    pfx_TitleCase (pfx = two or three letter module prefix)
Private functions   TitleCase
Trivial variables   i,x,n,f etc...
Local variables     lower_case or lowerCase
Global variables    g_lowerCase or g_lower_case (searchable by g_ prefix)

Answer

axel_c picture axel_c · Nov 12, 2009

The most important thing here is consistency. That said, I follow the GTK+ coding convention, which can be summarized as follows:

  1. All macros and constants in caps: MAX_BUFFER_SIZE, TRACKING_ID_PREFIX.
  2. Struct names and typedef's in camelcase: GtkWidget, TrackingOrder.
  3. Functions that operate on structs: classic C style: gtk_widget_show(), tracking_order_process().
  4. Pointers: nothing fancy here: GtkWidget *foo, TrackingOrder *bar.
  5. Global variables: just don't use global variables. They are evil.
  6. Functions that are there, but shouldn't be called directly, or have obscure uses, or whatever: one or more underscores at the beginning: _refrobnicate_data_tables(), _destroy_cache().