as an electronics hobbyist, here's my procedure for identifying common transistors.

first
try to determine the base by trial and error, interchanging + and - leads of your
multimeter, set multimeter to diode test, or if no function of diode test set range to around
2k ohms. you can determine the base by measuring resistance , with one lead of your
tester connected to one leg of transistor and measure the second leg by connecting the
second lead of your tester, note if there is resistance reading, if there is a reading then
note it, note also the polarity of the tester lead connected. if no reading or infinity then
reverse your leads. if after reversing it is still infinity then these two leads are the
collector and emitter. so now you had identified the base, which was not connected. now
connect your positive lead of your tester(this is for npn test) to the last leg which was
identified as base, and connect the negative lead to any leg and note your reading, then
transfer that negative lead to the other leg of the transistor and note again your reading.
you can now compare your reading and you can notice a slight difference in ohms, the
reading with lower resistance with respect to your base is the Emitter and the higher one
is the Collector. for pnp transistors, you will connect the negative lead of your tester to
the identified base, and procedure will be the same. always remember that the collector
will register a lower resistance compared to the emitter. testing some transistors with an
internal damper diode connected between collector and emitter is misleading, so its better
to read datasheets.