Visual Basic 6 Programming Conventions

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The conventions are very handy while working in a team. So following are the prefixes of various types used to declare a variable name so that its properties can be identified easily.

Variable Prefixes:

Variable scope prefix conventions.These must be first in the name of variable.

 Scope  Prefix
 Global  g
 Module-level or form-level  m
 Local to procedure  None

Variable Prefixes for Data Type

 Data Type  Prefix
 Boolean  bln
 Byte  byt
 Collection Object  col
 Currency  cur
 Date(Time)  dtm
 Double  dbl
 Error  err
 Integer  int
 Long  lng
 Object  obj
 Single  sng
 User-defined type  udt
 Variant  vnt

e.g. blnTrueFalse, intCounter, sngDividend

We also have control prefixes.
Control Prefixes:

 Control Type  Prefix
 3D Panel  pnl
 ADO data  ado
 Animated button  ani
 Checkbox  chk
 Combo box, drop-down list box  cbo
 Command button  cmd
 Common dialog  dlg
 Communications  com
 Contorl (used within procedures when the specific type is unknown  ctr
 Data  dat
 Data-bound combo box  dbcbo
 Data-bound grid  dbgrd
 Data-bound list box  dblst
 Data combo  dbc
 Data grid  dgd
 Data list  dbl
 Data repeater  drp
 Date picker  dtp
 Directory list box  dir
 Drive list box  drv
 File list box  fil
 Flat scroll bar  fsb
 Form  frm
 Frame  fra
 Gauge  gau
 Graph  gra
 Grid  grd
 Header  hdr
 Hierachical flex grid  flex
 Horizontal scroll bar  hsb
 Image  img
 Image Combo  imgcbo
 Image list  ils
 Label  lbl
 Lighweight checkbox  lwchk
 Lightweight combo box  lwcbo
 Lightweight command button  lwcmd
 Lightweight frame  lwfra
 Lightweight horizontal scroll bar  lwhsb
 Lightweight list box  lwlst
 Lightweight option button  lwopt
 Lightweight text box  lwtxt
 Lightweight vertical scroll bar  lwvsb
 Line  lin
 List box  lst
 List view  lvw
 MAPI message  mpm
 MAPI session  mps
 MCI  mci
 Menu  mnu
 Month view  mvw
 MS char  ch
 MS flex grid  msg
 MS tab  mst
 OLE container  ole
 Option button  opt
 Picutre box  pic
 Picture clip  clp
 Progress bar  prg
 Remote data  rd
 Rich text box  rtf
 Shape  shp
 Slider  sld
 Spin  spn
 Status bar  sta
 System info  sys
 Tab strip  tab
 Text box  txt
 Timer  tmr
 Toolbar  tlb
 Tree view  tre
 Up-down  upd
 Vertical scroll bar  vsb

Below is the prefixes for Data Access Objects (DAO)

 Database Object  Prefix
 Container  con
 Database  db
 DBEngine  dbe
 Document  doc
 Field  fld
 Group  grp
 Index  ix
 Parameter  prm
 QueryDef  qry
 Recordset  rec
 Relation  rel
 TableDef  tbd
 User  usr
 Workspace  wsp

Menu And Constant Prefixes

Prefix for menu is mnu then menu name and then menu item name. e.g. mnuFileCut. Constant variables should be mixed case and should start with capital letter.