Namespace Aliasing – The using directive

You can easliy alias a namespace in .NET by doing the following:

using System;
using System.Text;
using myXml = System.Xml; // <– myXml is the alias.

Then in the code you can reference it like this:

using System;
using System.Text;
using myXml = System.Xml;

namespace MetaDatdaGenerator
{
   class Program
   {
      static void Main(string[] args)
      {
         myXml.XmlDocument xmlDoc = new myXml.XmlDocument(); 
         // Do stuff
      }
   }
}

Uses

Perhaps you’ve named something with similar namespaces or you’ve encountered a product with a similar namespace. This will allow you to alias them in your projects.

Aliasing a class

You can also alias a class, to save on typing. Saved keystrokes = mo time. Mo time = mo money. Mo money = mo problems! Oh, wait, nevermind…anyway… here’s the code.

using System;
using System.Text;
using myXml = System.Xml;
using myException = ExampleCompany.ExampleProduct.Common.Exception.SomeExceptionWithAReallyReallyLongName;

namespace ExampleCompany.ExampleProduct
{
   class Program
   {
      static void Main(string[] args)
      {
         if (args.Length == 0)
         {
            throw new myException(“Please provide a parameter!”); 
         }
      }
   }
}

Conclusion

Though it may not be used often, I’ve found myself using it a couple times when I needed to resolve some names to save on typing as well as an instance where I had two classes with the same name.

MSDN link: The using directive.