Enumerations

• ✅ DO use PascalCasing.

• ✅ DO use a singular type name for an enumeration unless its values are bit fields.

  public enum Severity
  {
      Mild,
      Medium,
      Serious,
      Nuclear
  }
  

• ✅ DO use a plural type name for an enumeration with bit fields as values, also called flags enum:

  [Flags]
  enum Visibilities {
      Private = 1,
      Internal = 2,
      Public = 4
  }
  

  Why: Plural flags because enum can hold multiple values (using bitwise ‘OR’).

• ❌ DO NOT use an “Enum” suffix in enum type names.

  // Avoid
  public enum CoinEnum
  {
      Penny,
      Nickel,
      Dime,
      Quarter,
      Dollar
  }
  
  // Correct
  public enum Coin
  {
      Penny,
      Nickel,
      Dime,
      Quarter,
      Dollar
  }
  

• ❌ DO NOT use “Flag” or “Flags” suffixes in enum type names.

  // Avoid
  [Flags]
  public enum DockingsFlags
  {
    None = 0,
    Top = 1,
    Right = 2,
    Bottom = 4,
    Left = 8
  }
  
  // Correct
  [Flags]
  public enum Dockings
  {
    None = 0,
    Top = 1,
    Right = 2,
    Bottom = 4,
    Left = 8
  }
  

• ❌ DO NOT use a prefix on enumeration value names (e.g., “ad” for ADO enums, “rtf” for rich text enums, etc.).

  // Avoid
  enum Visibility
  {
      visPublic,
      visInternal,
      visPublic
  }
  

• ❌ DO NOT explicitly specify a type of an enum or values of enums (except bit fields)

  // Avoid
  public enum Direction : long
  {
      North = 1,
      East = 2,
      South = 3,
      West = 4
  }
  
  // Correct
  public enum Direction
  {
      North,
      East,
      South,
      West
  }
  

  Why: can create confusion when relying on actual types and values.

Learn More#

• Naming Enumerations (by learn.microsoft.com)
• Naming Enumerations (by readthedocs.io)
• C# Coding Standards and Naming Conventions