A Coding Convention for C++ Code
This document was borrowed and slightly modified from the Berkeley Systems, Inc. coding conventions. If you're looking
for something more comprehensive, try the
Ellemtel C++ Rules and Recommendations:
See also, Christopher Lott's collection of C and C++ style guides and the Mozilla portability guide.
Purpose
To make it easier for us to read each other's code, here are a few guidelines
to follow when writing C++ code.
Definitions
- Member functions are functions that are associated with classes.
- Data members are variables that are part of classes.
Identifier Names
- All variable and constant identifiers begin with a lowercase letter.
- Global variables begin with the (for example, theWindows).
- Constants begin with lowercase c (for example, cMaxWindows).
- Class data members begin with its (for example, itsCanvas).
- Static data members begin with their (for example, theirTotal).
- Both member and non-member functions begin with an uppercase letter
(for example, TextStyle).
- Names of classes begin with an uppercase letter (for example,
Canvas).
Class Declarations
Classes are declared in the following order: public member functions, protected
member functions, private member functions, protected data members, and
private data members. No data members may be declared public. For example:
class Application {
public:
Application();
~Application();
void Run();
protected:
void EventLoop();
private:
EventRecord itsLastMouseEvent;
}
Control Structures
The control structures are as follows:
if (expression) {
statements;
} else {
statements;
}
for (expression; expression; expression) {
statements;
}
do {
statements;
} while (expression);
while (expression) {
statements;
}
switch (expression) {
case constant:
statements;
break;
default:
statements;
break;
}
/*
* long comments which need more than one line use
* this block comment style, if you're writing C
*/
//
// if you're writing C++, your block comments should look more
// like this -- it's ugly to mix commenting styles
//
statement; /* short C comments */
statement; // short C++ comments
File Names
C++ source files use the suffix .cc. C++ header files use the suffix
.h.
Dan Wallach, CS Department, Rice University
Last modified: Fri Oct 15 15:14:12 CDT 1999