Why do variable names often start with the letter 'm'? [duplicate]

Answer 1

As already answered this prefix indcates that a variable is member.

Somtimes people use other prefixes if you discover some variables starting with 'i' or 's' it could also be a variant of the Hungarian Notation

Answer 2

'm' means the variable is a member variable of the class...

Answer 3

not only in java, I've seen similar convention in cocos2d+box2d samples where some of the variables start with m_, but others don't, very confusing.

b2World* world;
GLESDebugDraw *m_debugDraw;

I guess to differentiate C++ box2d variables from Obj-C variables.

Answer 4

'm' means member of the class. So, if you don't use IDE to highlight your members, then you will understand that it is a member by it's name

Answer 5

According to Android source code documentation:

• Non-public, non-static field names start with m.
• Static field names start with s.
• Other fields start with a lower case letter.
• Public static final fields (constants) are ALL_CAPS_WITH_UNDERSCORES.

Note that this is for writing Android source code. For creating Android apps, the Google Java Style Guide may be more helpful.

Answer 6

It stands for member. I personally find this convention unhelpful, but it's subjective.