CODEWITHSUNDEEP
.netnaming-conventions
Svish
Svish

Reputation: 158021

C#: What would you name an IEnumerable class?

When reading this question I started to wonder a bit. Say you have these two:

class ProductCollection : ICollection<Product>
class ProductList : IList<Product>

What would you call one that were an IEnumerable<Product>?

class Product--- : IEnumerable<Product>

Before I read that other question I might have called it a ProductCollection actually, but taking the new info into account, that would have been a bit misleading since it does not implement ICollection<Product>. Could you call it Products?

var products = new Products(); // products is/are products

Almost works but sounds a bit strange... What would you call it?

Upvotes: 8

Views: 3266

Answers (9)

Noldorin
Noldorin

Reputation: 147280

You generally do not base the name of a class off any interface it implements. (Which one do you choose when there are multiple ones, for a start?) It is quite typical to base it off an inherited class, but more often simply on the purpose of the class, and certainly not the interface. (The interface might be named after the class, if anything.)

Your example is somewhat invalidated by the fact that a well-designed ProductCollection should implement ICollection<Product> and IEnumerable<Product> while a well-designed ProductList should implement both those interfaces as well as IList<Product>.

If you look in the BCL of the .NET Framework, you should notice that this is precisely the case. The List<T> class implements all three interfaces, as does the Collection<T> class (though note that in the general case a 'collection' need not implement IList<T>).

Upvotes: 8

Yvo
Yvo

Reputation: 19263

I would say Collection. It might suggest a ReadOnlyCollection or ObservableCollection , but it describes the class well. It is after all a collection of products (whatever the underlying type may be).

To solve this question and the other question, use this ;)
http://www.classnamer.com/

Upvotes: -1

n8wrl
n8wrl

Reputation: 19765

Like kek444 I think I'd have to ask what else does it do? It implements IEnumerable<> but that's not all it does, or else you wouldn't need the class right? It is a collection? Does it transform one enumerable to another (alter order, selection, generation, etc)?

Upvotes: 0

Andrew Hare
Andrew Hare

Reputation: 351506

I think that "Sequence" would be a good suffix.

Upvotes: 6

tvanfosson
tvanfosson

Reputation: 532435

If it only implements IEnumerable<Product>, then I would name it ProductEnumeration, but I would feel free to name an instance of it products. On the other hand, I don't recall ever creating a class that only implemented IEnumerable<T>. Doesn't seem to be much point if you can't add stuff to it and if you can, then I'd derive from one of the collection classes that implements IEnumerable<T> and inherit that behavior, too.

If I were returning an enumeration of Product entities, I'd simply return it as IEnumerable<Product> without having a special class.

Upvotes: 5

Daniel Earwicker
Daniel Earwicker

Reputation: 116674

In almost every case I can think of from my own experience, I haven't had to think of a name. The compiler does it for me, because I write an iterator method instead of writing a class by hand. And for the method name, it seems natural to just make it a plural word describing the sequence.

Upvotes: 0

Kenan E. K.
Kenan E. K.

Reputation: 14111

It would depend upon the context, for example, it could be a ProductsCatalog (implying the read-only nature of IEnumerable).

More generally, it could be ProductsView. Of course, the Products fetched would be modifiable, but I feel it "sounds" appropriate nevertheless.

Upvotes: 2

Dykam
Dykam

Reputation: 10290

The problem here is that List or Collection impose they behave that way. But IEnumerable is very generic, not only in the C# meaning of generic. Every implementation can be behind it.

Some suggestions:

  • ProductIterator: This iterates Products.
  • ProductRetriever: This retrieves Products.
  • ProductCreator: This creates new Products at runtime.

Upvotes: 1

Fredrik M&#246;rk
Fredrik M&#246;rk

Reputation: 158309

If you look at the types in the .NET Framework that implements IEnumerable<T>, I would say that the most common suffix is Collection, followed by the plural form of what the list contains. Then there are a number of "special cases" (such as Queue and Stack). I would personally vote for Collection as a first-hand choice.

Upvotes: 0

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