- Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 1.7k
Summary: Class
Bill Wagner edited this page Dec 12, 2025 · 8 revisions
The following table provides wording guidelines, boilerplate text, and examples of Summary sections in class pages. For event-related classes, such as EventArgs and event-handler delegates, see the Event-related section.
| Item | Wording | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| General class, interface, or struct | <Begin with a present-tense third-person verb.> | DataGridclass summary: Displays XDO data in a scrollable grid. TimeSpanstruct summary: Represents a time interval. |
| Interface | Defines..., or Provides..,. or Exposes... | IComparableinterface summary: Defines a generalized type-specific comparison method that a value type or class implements to order or sort its instances. IFormattableinterface summary: Provides functionality to format the value of an object into a string representation. |
| Abstract base class | Defines the core behavior of <class name or feature> and provides a base for <derived classes or derivations>. | BaseNotificationEventTypeclass summary: Defines the core behavior of notification events and provides a base for derived classes. MessageQueryclass summary: Defines the core behavior of classes that are used to search for specific correlating data in a message. |
| Class that represents a standard Windows control (for example, a button or check box) | Represents a Windows <control> control. | Windows.Forms.Buttonclass Represents a Windows button control. |
| Exception class | The exception that is thrown when/for/by <condition>. Note: This summary does not begin with a verb. | ArgumentOutOfRangeExceptionclass summary: The exception that is thrown when the value of an argument is outside the allowable range of values as defined by the invoked method. ComponentModel.Win32Exceptionclass summary: The exception that is thrown for a Win32 error code. Reflection.TargetInvocationExceptionclass summary: The exception that is thrown by methods invoked through reflection. |
| Sealed or static class | <Begin with a present-tense third-person verb.> This class cannot be inherited. Note: we'll try to automate the addition of the boilerplate "This class cannot be inherited." to all summaries. For now, we need to add it manually. | AppDomainclass summary: Represents an application domain, which is an isolated environment where applications execute. This class cannot be inherited. |
| Extension block | <Begin with a present-tense third-person verb.> | IEnumerable<T>extension block summary:<br .>Defines a set of extension members for enumerable sequences. |