Having a variable with the same name in two unrelated classes is fine, but do the same thing within a class hierarchy and you’ll get confusion at
best, chaos at worst.
Noncompliant code example
Public Class Fruit
Protected Ripe As Season
Protected Flesh As Color
' ...
End Class
Public Class Raspberry
Inherits Fruit
Private Ripe As Boolean ' Noncompliant
Private Shared FLESH As Color ' Noncompliant
' ...
End Class
Compliant solution
Public Class Fruit
Protected Ripe As Season
Protected Flesh As Color
' ...
End Class
Public Class Raspberry
Inherits Fruit
Private Riped As Boolean
Private Shared FLESH_COLOR As Color ' Noncompliant
' ...
End Class
Exceptions
This rule ignores same-name fields that are Shared in both the parent and child classes. It also ignores Private parent
class fields and fields explicitly declared as Shadows, but in all other such cases, the child class field should be renamed.
Public Class Fruit
Private Ripe As Season
Protected Flesh As Color
' ...
End Class
Public Class Raspberry
Inherits Fruit
Private Ripe As Season ' Compliant as parent field 'Ripe' is not visible from Raspberry anyway
Protected Shadows Flesh As Color ' Compliant as the intention is explicitly declared
' ...
End Class
