Visual Studio Hacks

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Chapter 6, Speed Hacks

#56 Automatically Add using and Imports Statements

HACK

Studio will search through the solution for any other references to the same

assembly. Any references found will be updated to the new location.

This macro is a great time-saver when you are reorganizing projects or solu-

tions and is a great alternative to updating all your references manually.

Thanks to Doug Doedens for writing this macro and posting at the C# Cor-

ner (see http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/Code/2002/July/SolutionMacros.asp).

HACK

#56

Automatically Add using and Imports

Statements Hack #56

Use a macro to scan your code and determine which namespaces need to be

imported.

The .NET Framework is built around namespaces. Every class in the .NET

Framework belongs to a namespace; you need to tell the compiler that you

want to use the classes in that namespace. This is done through the use of a

using statement in C# or an Imports statement in VB.NET. One of the

annoyances that this creates is then realizing that you have not added a

using or Imports statement for a class that you added. This means you have

to find out what namespace you need to add for this class and then go to the

top of your document and add the name of the namespace. Alternatively,

you could fully qualify the class you are using, meaning that you prefix the

name of the class with the full name of the namespace (e.g.,

System.Data.

SqlClient.SqlConnection ...