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Identifiers should not match keywords

  • Article

TypeName

IdentifiersShouldNotMatchKeywords

CheckId

CA1716

Category

Microsoft.Naming

Breaking Change

Breaking

Cause

The name of a namespace, type, or a virtual or interface member matches a reserved keyword in a programming language.

Rule Description

Identifiers for namespaces, types, or virtual or interface members should not match keywords defined by languages that target the common language runtime. Depending on the language in use and the keyword, compiler errors and ambiguities can make the library difficult to use.

This rule checks against keywords in the following languages:

  • Visual Basic

  • C#

  • C++/CLI

Case-insensitive comparison is used for Visual Basic keywords, and case-sensitive comparison is used for the other languages.

How to Fix Violations

Select a name that does not appear in the list of keywords.

When to Suppress Warnings

You can suppress a warning from this rule if you are convinced that the identifier will not confuse users of the API, and that the library is usable in all available languages in the .NET Framework.