Is there a way to automatically sort the using directives alphabetically in Visual Studio 2005?

Question

There is this option available in Visual Studio 2008.

Is there a similar option in Visual Studio 2005? Or something else that would accomplish such a task? An add-in, maybe?

Answer 1

Resharper can remove the unused 'using' statements. I'm not 100% sure it can also sort them.

Answer 2

If you're cleaning up the files with unsorted using statements once (as opposed to having to deal with them on an on-going basis, perhaps because of a sloppy/uncooperative coworker?), and you are willing to use another tool for the job, there is another option.

I like using VS 2005 for its intellisense, but sometimes find the editor lacking in power compared to Emacs. I have Epsilon (an Emacs clone) which has the command sort-region, which takes the lines in the current selection and sorts them alphabetically. I can even type in a keyboard macro in Epsilon that:

• Finds the first using statement in a file and starts the selection there.
• Finds the last using statement in the file.
• Sorts the lines between the first and last using statement.
• Saves the file.

Answer 3

Resharper has a sort function. But it looks like all System usings are put on top, and then the rest alphabetically.

Also check this question also on optimizing usings with Resharper.

Answer 4

If you've got Visual Assist, that's got a 'Sort Selected Lines' command that will do what you need.