What for should I mark private variables as private if they already are?

Question

As far as I know, in C# all fields are private for default, if not marked otherwise.

class Foo
{
  private string bar;
}

class Foo
{
  string bar;
}
         


        

Answer 1

I personally prefer marking the default private and default public fields explicitly. You may well know the defaults but your brain will like verbosity whenever you quickly scan the code.

Answer 2

Explicitly using private can improve readability in certain edge cases.

Example:

        /*
        Tomorrow when we wake up from bed,
        first me and Daddy and Mommy, you, eat
        breakfast eat breakfast like we usually do,
        and then we're going to play and
        then soon as Daddy comes, Carl's going
        to come over, and then we're going to
        play a little while. And then Carl and
        Emily are both going down to the car
        with somebody, and we're going to ride
        to nursery school [whispered], and then
        when we get there, we're all going
        to get out of the car...
        */

        int spam;

        /*
        Does this style look at all familiar?
        It should!
        */

Looking at this fragment you may be unsure whether you're in method or class scope.

Using either private or underscore in field name (private int spam;, int spam_; or int _spam;) will eliminate the confusion.

Answer 3

Up to you. Do what's best for readability or makes sense in your case. I mark them as private just to make it clear though.

Answer 4

This is purely a coding standards question but, for what it's worth, I always explicitly mark private members as private.