Why use prefixes on member variables in C++ classes

Question

A lot of C++ code uses syntactical conventions for marking up member variables. Common examples include

• m_memberName for public members (where public

Answer 1

I can't say how widespred it is, but speaking personally, I always (and have always) prefixed my member variables with 'm'. E.g.:

class Person {
   .... 
   private:
       std::string mName;
};

It's the only form of prefixing I do use (I'm very anti Hungarian notation) but it has stood me in good stead over the years. As an aside, I generally detest the use of underscores in names (or anywhere else for that matter), but do make an exception for preprocessor macro names, as they are usually all uppercase.