Best Practices for Object Naming Convention in SQL Server

There are several best practices for object naming conventions in SQL Server:

Use meaningful and descriptive names: Object names should be clear, meaningful, and descriptive. Avoid using generic or abbreviated names.

Use consistent naming conventions: Establish a consistent naming convention and stick to it throughout your database. This will make it easier to identify and understand the objects in your database.

Use PascalCase or snake_case: Use PascalCase for object names, this is where the first letter of each word is capitalized and no spaces or special characters are used. for example: “MyTable”, “MyColumn” or use snake_case where all letters are lowercase and words are separated by an underscore. for example :”my_table”, “my_column”

Prefix objects with their type: Prefix objects with their type (e.g., tbl for tables, vw for views, usp for stored procedures, etc.) to make it easier to identify the object type.

Limit object names to 128 characters: Limit object names to 128 characters to ensure compatibility with different platforms and to avoid potential naming conflicts.

Avoid using reserved keywords: Avoid using reserved keywords as object names, as they may cause confusion or errors in your code.

Use versioning : Use versioning in the name of the object if you are going to have multiple versions of the same object, for example: “usp_GetOrders_v1”, “usp_GetOrders_v2”

Be consistent and document your naming conventions: Be consistent in applying your naming conventions and document them so that others can understand and follow them.

By following these best practices, you can help to ensure that your objects are easy to understand, maintain, and troubleshoot and that naming conflicts are minimized.

here are a few examples of object naming conventions in SQL Server:

Using PascalCase for tables:

CREATE TABLE Employee (
    EmployeeId INT PRIMARY KEY,
    FirstName NVARCHAR(50),
    LastName NVARCHAR(50)
);

Using snake_case for tables:

CREATE TABLE employee (
    employee_id INT PRIMARY KEY,
    first_name NVARCHAR(50),
    last_name NVARCHAR(50)
);

Prefixing objects with their type:

CREATE TABLE tblEmployee (
    EmployeeId INT PRIMARY KEY,
    FirstName NVARCHAR(50),
    LastName NVARCHAR(50)
);

CREATE PROCEDURE uspGetEmployee (
    @EmployeeId INT
)
AS
BEGIN
    SELECT * FROM tblEmployee WHERE EmployeeId = @EmployeeId;
END
Using versioning for objects
Copy code
CREATE PROCEDURE usp_GetOrders_v1 (
    @CustomerId INT
)
AS
BEGIN
    SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE CustomerId = @CustomerId;
END

CREATE PROCEDURE usp_GetOrders_v2 (
    @CustomerId INT,
    @OrderStatus VARCHAR(50)
)
AS
BEGIN
    SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE CustomerId = @CustomerId AND OrderStatus = @OrderStatus;
END

It’s worth noting that these examples are just one possible way to implement object naming conventions in SQL Server, and different teams may have different conventions that work better for them. The important thing is to establish a consistent naming convention and stick to it throughout your database.