Configure VS Code to use _ as a prefix for private fields

On my journey to migrate from Visual Studio to VS Code, one detail that frustrated me was the generation of private fields. My preference has always been to use _ as a prefix for private fields as a way to differentiate private fields from method parameters.

In Visual Studio, I always relied on Resharper to implement this rule, which is not available in VS Code.

Luckily, today I was sent a link to a post by Steve Ardalis in which he explains how to configure Visual Studio so that private properties are generated with the _ prefix.

This didn't solve my problem but piqued my curiosity. And since I know that the same pattern is used in .NET repositories, I decided to check if there was any hint in the aspnet core repository.

The first obvious thing: they use .editorconfig to share the basic project settings. (.editorconfig is a file that can be used to share settings among team members, even if they use different tools.)

I created an .editorconfig file and added the desired settings.

1[*.{cs,vb}]
2dotnet_naming_rule.private_members_with_underscore.symbols  = private_fields
3dotnet_naming_rule.private_members_with_underscore.style    = prefix_underscore
4dotnet_naming_rule.private_members_with_underscore.severity = suggestion
5dotnet_naming_symbols.private_fields.applicable_kinds           = field
6dotnet_naming_symbols.private_fields.applicable_accessibilities = private
7dotnet_naming_style.prefix_underscore.capitalization = camel_case
8dotnet_naming_style.prefix_underscore.required_prefix = _

Unfortunately, it didn't work... for some reason, the settings were not applied.

The next step was to see if there was any configuration in omnisharp (the extension used by VS Code to work with C#) that might be related. And wouldn't you know it, there is!

Adding the line

1"omnisharp.enableEditorConfigSupport": true

to .vscode/settings.json,

"And with the new .editorconfig file, now the refactoring to add a new property behaves as expected.

By using the .editorsettins file and setting the configurations in the .vscode/settings.json file, we ensure that the entire team will share the same configurations, regardless of using VS Code or Visual Studio.

And while you're at it, don't forget to add to the .editorconfig:

1[*]
2indent_style = space

Because friends don't let friends use TAB!