Naming the user object

A user object name can be any valid PowerBuilder identifier up to 40 characters. For information about PowerBuilder identifiers, see the PowerScript Reference.

Naming conventions

You should adopt naming conventions to make it easy to understand a user object's type and purpose.

One convention you could follow is to use u_ as the prefix for visual user objects and n_ as the prefix for class (nonvisual) user objects. For standard classes, include the standard prefix for the object or control from which the class inherits in the name. For external user objects, include ex_ in the name, and for custom class user objects, include cst_ in the name.

Table 15-3 shows some examples of this convention.

**Table 15-3: Suggested naming conventions for user objects**
Type of user object	Format	Example
Standard visual	u_control_purpose	u_cb_close, a CommandButton that closes a window
Custom visual	u_purpose	u_toolbar, a toolbar
External visual	u_ex_purpose	u_ex_sound, outputs sound
Standard class	n_systemobject_purpose	n_trans_test, derived from the Transaction object and used for testing
Custom class	n_cst_purpose	n_cst_commission, calculates commissions

For a list of naming conventions, see “Naming conventions” in Chapter 5, “Working with Targets.”