Odd bug in C#4 compiler? Alias namespaces getting mixed up.

Question

Here's my issue,

I'm using a namespace to remove ambiguity from a factory class which is creating domain objects from entity framework entity objects (a POCO factory,.. if that makes sense!). Call me old fashioned but I like things this way :-)

The namespaces I'm working with are aliased as such -

using Entities = DataAccess.Models.AccessControl;
using Cases = DomainModel.BusinessObjects.Implimentations.Cases;

Now, the DomainModel.BusinessObjects.Implimentations.Cases namespace only has one type so far called CaseType. However whilst I was working on another type which consumes the CaseType class I noticed that when I 'dot' into the Cases alias, it points to a totally different namespace in my DataAccess assembly and gives me the CaseTypeFactory in intellisense.

So I checked the CaseType and CaseTypeFactory classes and they are namespaced correctly. What in god's name is going on? I really can't work this one out.

Here's the code for the CaseType and CaseTypeFactory if it helps.

CaseTypeFactory

using Domain = DomainModel.BusinessObjects.Implimentations.Cases;
using Entities = DataAccess.Models.AccessControl;
using Interfaces.DataAccess;

    namespace DataAccess.Factories.Cases
    {
        public class CaseTypeFactory :
            IEntityPOCOFactory<Domain.CaseType, Entities.CaseType>
        {
            #region IEntityPOCOFactory<CaseType,CaseType> Members

            public Domain.CaseType CreatePOCO(Entities.CaseType entity)
            {
                return new Domain.CaseType(entity.Id, entity.Name, entity.LastChanged);
            }

            public IList<Domain.CaseType> CreatePOCOs(
                IEnumerable<Entities.CaseType> entities)
            {
                var toReturn = new List<Domain.CaseType>();

                foreach (var entity in entities)
                {
                    toReturn.Add(CreatePOCO(entity));
                }
                return toReturn;
            }

            #endregion
        }
    }

CaseType

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using DomainModel.BusinessObjects.Base;

namespace DomainModel.BusinessObjects.Implimentations.Cases
{
    public class CaseType : NamedNumberedAndVersioned
    {
        public CaseType(string name, DateTime lastChanged)
            : this(0, name, lastChanged) { }

        public CaseType(int id, string name, DateTime lastChanged)
            : base(id, name, lastChanged) { }

        public void Update(string name)
        {
            this.Name = name;
        }
    }
}

It's probably worth mentioning I'm working with .Net 4.0 / VS2010

Any help would be massively appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Is the code you're writing in the DataAccess.Factories namespace? If so, then Cases will indeed resolve to DataAccess.Factories.Cases first.

Two options:

• Use an alias which isn't also the name of another namespace, e.g.

  using DomainCases = ...
  

• Use :: instead of . to force it to use the alias:

  IEntityPOCOFactory<Cases::CaseType, Whatever>
  

I'd personally go for the first option to make things clearer... or try to avoid requiring namespace aliases to start with.