>I don't particularly like underscores either, but they do give readability when browsing or copying to Excel.

I've come to dislike underscores intensely for the simple reason that I find it hard to remember where I used them and where I didn't. I'll remember every other character in the field name and be unsure about the underscore.

I use camel case instead and like that very much.

I do use hungarian notation for field names:

c character
d date
i integer
n number
t datetime
y currency

For instance I just created two new fields tonight to record when a timeshare reservation is assigned to an agency (like the rental office). The fields are:

dLastAss -- date of assignment
cLastAss -- agency code

So I don't never have to spell out "date" or "number" in a field name this way. The relationship between the two fields is obvious.

I have one other naming convention that I like alot. Every table has a primary integer key. If the table is named MYTABLE then the key field is named:

MYTABLE.iMYTABLE

with the table name in all caps.


If another table refers to that key it looks like this:

SOMETAB.iMYTABLE


If I store that value to a local variable, it is named:

liMYTABLE

My primary and foreign keys really jump out of the code this way. (I also put VFP keywords in lower case because so the contrast is even greater.)


Peter