C#: Use a namespace for a specific block of code?

Question

I just have a point of curiosity. I'm working with SSRS and calling its SOAP methods. I've got stubs generated / Web references created and that's all working fine and I can make web service calls OK.

The problem: the two classes generated from the WSDLs, ReportService2005 and ReportExecution, have some overlapping class definitions, such as ParameterValue, DataSourceCredentials, ReportParameter.

In C#, is there a way of saying, "For this block of code in the method, use this namespace?"

Pseudo / mostly build-error code:

use-this-namespace (ReportService2005)
{
    ParameterValue[] values = null;
    DataSourceCredentials[] credentials = null;
    ReportParameter[] parameters;
}

I understand that I can just write out of the full name, ReportService2005.ParameterValue[] values = null. Or I can alias the two classes at the top before my class/controller declaration. It's just something I'm curious about.

Answer 1

Unfortunately not. There's no such syntax to address this need.

Answer 2

I don't think you can do that. You must specify Fully Qualified name to do that.

Answer 3

AFAIK it can't be done

Answer 4

As others have written, I don't think this is possible. But what you can do, is to alias the full namespaces instead of each single class you want to use, e.g:

using rs = ReportService2005;
using re = ReportExecution;

// ...

rs.ParameterValue[] values = null;
rs.DataSourceCredentials[] credentials = null;
rs.ReportParameter[] parameters;
re.ParameterValue v2 = ...;

Answer 5

If the overlapping classes are identical (not just named the same) and share the same XML namespace, etc., then you may be able to take advantage of the wsdl.exe tool's sharetypes feature to generate both of your web service proxies so that they share the same type definitions for those overlapping classes.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/7h3ystb6%28VS.80%29.aspx

Check out the "/sharetypes" option to see if that works for your situation.

Answer 6

While not relevant for working with Namespaces, or C#, VB.NET supports the With keyword which can be used as a shortcut for accessing members of an object:

SomeReallyLongName.Property1 = 1
SomeReallyLongName.Property2 = 2
SomeReallyLongName.Property3 = 3
SomeReallyLongName.Property4 = 4
SomeReallyLongName.Property5 = 5

Can be rewritten as:

With SomeReallyLongName
    .Property1 = 1
    .Property2 = 2
    .Property3 = 3
    .Property4 = 4
    .Property5 = 5
End With

It's not in C#, as you can get very close to the same behavior using other approached:

• Using shorter variable names
• Using imports-aliasing (Such as Martin suggested)

Answer 7

What you can do, is mark your class as partial:

public partial class MyWebServiceClass

in your main source file, and create a second source file with the method where you want to use the other namespace

// MyWebServiceClass.usingMethods.cs

using ReportService2005;
public partial class MyWebServiceClass
{
    // methods...
}

Answer 8

Another little-known C# feature that might interest you, and is similar to Martin's answer, is essentially aliasing a class in the Imports blocks:

using ListOfDictionary = System.Collections.Generic.List<System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary<string, string>>;

and declare it as

ListOfDictionary list = new ListOfDictionary();

Note This feature, and sample, were found in another question; specifically: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9033/hidden-features-of-c/3031174#3031174