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Simple VBA Object Naming

Naming data objects (especially files, tables, and fields)

No spaces
Only letters, numbers, $ and the underscore character _
Be careful with $. Some programming languages assign a default meaning to $,
especially at the biginning of a name.
Always begin the name with a letter
Tables, queries, forms, and controls should never have plural names.
Plural names are reserved for collections (groups) of objects, not groups of data.

A Current Object Naming Convention

This is the most common current object naming convention.

The prefix denotes which section of the application (which module) the data objects is part of.
Capitalization is Camel Case which means each new word is capitalized, except for the prefix, if one is used.
Tables don't have prefixes, they have Schemas, which were called Owners in older SQL Server versions: dbo.UserAccount could be put in the Personnel schema: per.UserAccount.
User Account Stored Procedures of the Personnel database module would be: perUserAccountCreate and perUserAccountRead or per.UserAccountCreate and per.UserAccountRead.
Views are named like tables with a combination of the data provided and possibly the function that is applied to the data: per.UserAccountPermissions
Both Views and Stored Procedures should be asigned to the same schema as the tables they use, especially in large projects.

Suggestions for Variable Data Type Naming

Data type	Prefix	Example	Note
String (Text)	str	strCity	Text to 255 characters
Date/Time	dtm	dtmCreated	Date and Time
Boolean	bln	blnIsNotNull	Yes/No or True/False, two values
Byte	byt	bytMonth	One Byte, values from 0 to +255
Integer	int or i	intCount or iCount	Two Bytes; values from -32,768 to +32,767; No fractions
Long (long integer)	lng	lngDistance	Four Bytes, values from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647
Single	sng	sngPopulation	Four Bytes single precision, floating point
Currency	cur	curTraded	Fifteen digits to the left, four to the left. Fixed decimal place.
Double	dbl	dblClientID	Eight Bytes
Decimal	dec	decMicroseconds	Twelve Bytes
Object	obj	objConnection
Variant	vnt	vntUserInput	It can store numeric, string, date/time, Null, or Empty data
Error	err	errBadEmailAddress

An Older Object Naming Convention

This is an obsolete naming convention. Forms of this convention were widely used when programming tools made it hard to tell if you were looking at a database, a table, or a query in the object viewer. This convention also works best with simple projects where there is only one module.

I have included this section because there are many projects "out there" using it. Also, some people still use this convention. As you can see, some of the prefixes are specific to development in Microsoft Access, which is natural, since it was Access developers who popularized this form of naming.

Type of Object	Name Prefix	Example	Access Example
Table	tbl	tbl_last_name	tblLastName
Form	frm	frm_pet	frmPet
Sub Form	sfrm	fsfr_visit	fsfrVisit
Label	lbl	lbl_last_name	lblLastName
TextBox	txt	txt_last_name	txtLastName
Command Button	cmd	cmd_exit	cmdExit
Report	rpt	rpt_invoice	rptInvoice
Sub Report	srpt	rsrp_medication	rsrpMedication
Query, Select	qsel	qsel_search	qselSearch
Query, Append	qapp	qapp_customer	qappCustomer
Query, Delete	qdel	qdel_out_of_date	qdelOutOfDate
Query, Update	qupd	qupd_area_code	qupdAreaCode
Query, MakeTable	qmak	qmak_tbl_visit	qmakVisit
Macro	mcr	mcr_open_frm_search	mcrOpenfrmSearch
Module, VBA	bas	bas_utlility	basUtility

Object Naming Conventions; Details

Class Object	Prefix
Table	tbl
Query	qry
Form	frm
Report	rpt
Macro	mcr
Module	bas
Subform/report	s

Field Object	Prefix
Currency	cur
Date/Time	dtm
Double	dbl
Integer	int
Long	lng
Memo	mem
Single	sng
Text (string)	str
Yes/No or boolean	ysn or bln