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A relatively minor question, but I haven\'t been able to find official documenta

ID: 643779 • Letter: A

Question

A relatively minor question, but I haven't been able to find official documentation or even blog opinion/discussions on it.

Simply put: when I have a private object whose sole purpose is to serve for private lock, what do I name that object?

class MyClass
{
    private object LockingObject = new object();

    void DoSomething()
    {
        lock(LockingObject)
        {
            //do something
        }
    }
}
What should we name LockingObject here? Also consider not just the name of the variable but how it looks in-code when locking.

I've seen various examples, but seemingly no solid go-to advice:

Plenty of usages of SyncRoot (and variations such as _syncRoot).

Code Sample: lock(SyncRoot), lock(_syncRoot)
This appears to be influenced by VB's equivalent SyncLock statement, the SyncRoot property that exists on some of the ICollection classes and part of some kind of SyncRoot design pattern (which arguably is a bad idea)
Being in a C# context, not sure if I'd want to have a VBish naming. Even worse, in VB naming the variable the same as the keyword. Not sure if this would be a source of confusion or not.
thisLock and lockThis from the MSDN articles: C# lock Statement, VB SyncLock Statement

Code Sample: lock(thisLock), lock(lockThis)
Not sure if these were named minimally purely for the example or not
Kind of weird if we're using this within a static class/method.
EDIT: The Wikipedia article on locks also uses this naming for its example
Several usages of PadLock (of varying casing)

Code Sample: lock(PadLock), lock(padlock)
Not bad, but my only beef is it unsurprisingly invokes the image of a physical "padlock" which I tend to not associate with the abstract threading concept.
Naming the lock based on what it's intending to lock

Code Sample: lock(messagesLock), lock(DictionaryLock), lock(commandQueueLock)
In the VB SyncRoot MSDN page example, it has a simpleMessageList example with a private messagesLock object
I don't think it's a good idea to name the lock against the type you're locking around ("DictionaryLock") as that's an implementation detail that may change. I prefer naming around the concept/object you're locking ("messagesLock" or "commandQueueLock")
Interestingly, I very rarely see this naming convention for locking objects in code samples online or on StackOverflow.
(EDIT) The C# spec under section "8.12 The Lock Statement" has an example of this pattern and names it synchronizationObject

Code Sample: lock(SynchronizationObject), lock(synchronizationObject)
Question: What's your opinion generally about naming private locking objects?

Recently, I've started naming them ThreadLock (so kinda like option 3), but I'm finding myself questioning that name.

I'm frequently using this locking pattern (in the code sample provided above) throughout my applications so I thought it might make sense to get a more professional opinion/discussion about a solid naming convention for them. Thanks!

Explanation / Answer

I've taken to the habit of calling it SomeResourceLock where the SomeResource is what you need the lock to access/update, i.e. (forgive any thread issues, this is just an illustration)

public class ProcessDataInQueue
{
private static Queue<Data> _dataQueue = new Queue<Data>();
private static object _dataQueueLock = new Object();

public void AddOneItem(Data itemToAdd)
{
lock(_dataQueueLock)
{
_dataQueue.Enqueue(itemToAdd);
}
}

public void ProcessOneItem()
{
Data itemToProcess = null;
lock(_dataQueueLock)
{
itemToProcess = _dataQueue.Dequeue();
}
// ... process itemToProcess
}
}
I've come upon this habit after having classes where I may have multiple locks for different resources, so I name the locking object based on what resources it's locking access to. Sometimes one object may be locking multiple resources in which case I would try to make the names respect that in some way, so the reader knows "other locks for those individual resources will be in contention with this lock as well".

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