About The Variable Naming Tutorial

There are a lot of programmers that don't properly indicate what type of variable they are using. The best way to make your code understandable for others and yourself is to properly preceed your variables and objects with an easy to understand prefix.

As a general rule (not always applied) it is best to prefix variables with a single letter, and prefix objects with three letters. Just follow the chart below.

This list is not an official prefix list. It's only a suggestion list using naming conventions I was taught, as well as a few official Microsoft naming conventions.

Variable Prefixes

Prefix	Variable Type
b	Boolean
c	Currency
d	Double
f	Single
i	Integer
l	Long
r	Short
s	String
t	Date or Time
v	Variant
y	Byte

Object Type

Prefix	Object Type
btn	Button
cal	Calendar
cbo	ComboBox
chk	CheckBox
cmd	Command Button
dir	Directory ListBox
dlg	Common Dialog Box
drv	Drive Selector
dtp	Date Picker
fil	File ListBox
fra	Frame
frm	Form
ilt	ImageList
img	Image
lbl	Label
lst	ListBox
lvw	ListView
mnu	Menu Item
nud	NumericUpDown
obj	Object
opt	Radio (Option) Button
pic	Picture Box
prg	Progress Bar
sbr	StringBuilder
tkb	TrackBar
tmr	Timer Control
txt	TextBox