How to make the C# namespace work like Java Packag

Question

I come from Java and see that package in Java is very convenient. When you move a class to another package, it will change automatically the package. (of course, by IDE such as Eclipse or Netbean)

But C# is using namespace and don't have my namespace renamed automatically like it does in Java. For example I have a file which namespace is com.app and I put it in com.app, but at later time, I move this file to com.lib folder and its namespace still be com.app. So, I find this is difficult to manage because I'm moving it manually.

Please give me help in how to fix my problem. (that namespace of file is named by folder it contains, and when I move to other, I will automatically change). Can we do it?

Answer 1

Thats actually because C# has the concept of partial classes , that is , you can distribute your C# class along several files instead of just having it coded into a single file , like Java. For that reason , namespaces in .Net are distributed containers instead of centralized containers , defined by your namespace orperator.

Answer 2

I fix the problem by using an IDE plugin called Resharper. (Among many, many useful features) it highlights when a namespace is wrong (based on the folder hierarchy and root namespace of the assembly) and can fix it for you.

Note that unlike in Java, there are sometimes very valid reasons for a class to be in a namespace other than the one inferred by the directory structure. A good example might be extension method classes, which need to be in scope in the class that is invoking them. Therefore it is common to have:

/myProject
  /extensions
     /MyExtensionMethodClass.cs

with a namespace like myProject (so that the extension methods can be used anywhere in myProject without a using directive)