bcquality/microsoft/knowledge/style/api-page-entity-naming-singular-plural.md
Jesper Schulz-Wedde 2b5550c346
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Improve partner onboarding and documentation navigation (#174)
Lead with a complete plugin quick start and add task-oriented usage, troubleshooting, customization, and contribution guides. Preserve the broader plugin framing, correct conflicting contract guidance, support Agents folder reviews, and align repository validation. Convert existing sample references to clickable links without changing knowledge rules.

Co-authored-by: Jesper Schulz-Wedde <jesper.schulzwedde@microsoft.com>
Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
2026-09-09 17:31:03 +02:00

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---
bc-version: [all]
domain: style
keywords: [api-page, entityname, entitysetname, singular, plural]
technologies: [al]
countries: [w1]
application-area: [all]
---
# `EntityName` is singular; `EntitySetName` is plural
## Description
`EntityName` and `EntitySetName` on an API page are the two halves of the OData naming contract. `EntityName` names a single record — `'customer'`, `'salesOrder'`, `'item'`. `EntitySetName` names the collection — `'customers'`, `'salesOrders'`, `'items'`. Swapping them — `EntityName = 'customers'`, `EntitySetName = 'customer'` — produces URLs that lie to consumers: `GET /customers` returns one row, `GET /customers('id')` returns a collection. The OData conventions consumers rely on for client-side code generation depend on the singular/plural pairing being correct.
## Best Practice
Pick the singular noun for `EntityName` and its grammatical plural for `EntitySetName`, both in camelCase. For compound nouns, only the trailing noun is pluralized: `EntityName = 'salesOrder'`, `EntitySetName = 'salesOrders'`. For nouns whose plural is irregular, use the natural English form — `EntitySetName = 'people'` for `EntityName = 'person'`.
See sample: [`api-page-entity-naming-singular-plural.good.al`](api-page-entity-naming-singular-plural.good.al).
## Anti Pattern
`EntityName = 'customers'`, `EntitySetName = 'customer'` — singular and plural swapped. Equally wrong is reusing the same form for both — `EntityName = 'customer'`, `EntitySetName = 'customer'` — which breaks OData metadata parsers and client codegen.
See sample: [`api-page-entity-naming-singular-plural.bad.al`](api-page-entity-naming-singular-plural.bad.al).