Hungarian Notation

Hungarian Notation

Charles Simonyi is credited with first discussing Hungarian Notation. It is a variable naming convention that includes C++ information about the variable in its name (such as data type, whether it is a reference variable or a constant variable, etc). Every company and programmer seems to have their own flavor of Hungarian Notation. The following is just what we thought seemed easy for beginning students to understand.

Prefix	Type	Example
b	boolean	bool bStillGoing;
c	character	char cLetterGrade;
str	C++ String	string strFirstName;
si	short integer	short siChairs;
i	integer	int iCars;
li	long integer	long liStars;
f	floating point	float fPercent;
d	double-precision floating point	double dMiles;
ld	long double-precision floating point	long double ldLightYears;
sz	Old-Style Null Terminated String	char szName[NAME_LEN];
if	Input File Stream	ifstream ifNameFile;
is	Input Stream	void fct(istream &risIn);
of	Output File Stream	ofstream ofNameFile;
os	Output Stream	void fct(ostream &rosIn);
S	declaring a struct	struct SPoint {
C	declaring a class	class CPerson {
struct name or abbrev	declaring an instance of a struct	SPoint pointLeft; SPoint ptLeft; // or abbrev. (be consistent)
class name or abbrev	declaring an instance of a class	CPerson personFound; CPerson perFound; // or abbrev. (be consistent)

The following table contains letters that go before the above prefixes.

Pre-prefix	Type	Example
u	unsigned	unsigned short usiStudents;
k	constant formal parameter	void fct(const long kliGalaxies)
r	reference formal parameter	void fct(long &rliGalaxies)
s	static	static char scChoice;
rg	array (stands for range)	float rgfTemp[MAX_TEMP];
m_	member variable of a struct or class	char m_cLetterGrade;
p	pointer to a single thing	char *pcGrade;
prg	dynamically allocated array	char *prgcGrades;