I was just wondering if there was a way in C# to import (use) everything inside a namespace like there is in java with the wildcard character.
import java.awt.*;
+11
A:
That's what the normal using directive does. For instance:
using System;
means you can use Console, Guid, Int32 etc without qualification. The closest equivalent to the single import in Java is:
using Console = System.Console;
(etc)
but that's not used very often.
Jon Skeet
2009-02-24 22:43:07
Thats something that I did not know could be done in C#, I kind-of like it because you only use Console but the syntax is really uncomfortable.
Lucas McCoy
2009-02-24 22:46:45
It's more useful for getting round naming clashes, e.g. having "Button" imported from two different namespaces.
Jon Skeet
2009-02-24 22:47:21
Or when your testers insist on having really long namespaces. :)
Steven Behnke
2009-02-24 23:31:58
Aliases are also useful for shortening or clarifying long names, which sometimes happens with generics.
Hosam Aly
2009-03-08 08:35:08
A:
No, there is not a way to do something like:
using System.Windows.*;
I think the intent is to ensure that names are as clearly qualified as possible, and including something like this would potentially introduce more name collisions. Also, a "using" directive only changes how names are resolved... it does not cause additional assemblies (those that contain the classes of that namespace) to get loaded.
JaredReisinger
2009-02-24 22:48:53
import java.awt.* imports all the classes in the java.awt package. Isn't that *exactly* what "using System.Windows;" would do for the System.Windows namespace?
Jon Skeet
2009-02-24 23:25:31
It really depends on what you mean by "import", and by whether the "*" is recursive or not. (I don't know Java, so I'm coming at this from a completely C# perspective.) In C#, you can have a referenced assembly (from which you get the classes), and you also have "using" for name resolution only.
JaredReisinger
2009-03-04 23:17:17
... Once an assembly is referenced in a project, you can use any of its classes without ever issuing a "using" statement.I guess my issue really was that I didn't know what Java's "import" really meant, and perhaps incorrectly assumed that it was more than C#'s "using".
JaredReisinger
2009-03-04 23:20:26
@Jared: No, the "*" isn't recursive in Java, and in Java it's only used for name resolution too.
Jon Skeet
2009-03-08 07:09:07
Sorry @Jared, but -1. Not only is this information incorrect, it's also misleading.
Hosam Aly
2009-03-08 08:33:15