Question

Just wondering what the recommended practice is for importing namespaces. Are you always better importing the namespace like the fisrt snippet of code, or are you better to type the full namespace inline with your code.

I like both methods; the first is tidier and takes less code, the second can identify exactly where your accessing some logic from which can provide some clarity when looking over the code. Just wondering if there are pros/cons for either or if this is just a personal preference, currently I use a combination but would like to keep consistant.

Imports Core.Tech
Public SomeClass
  Public Function New()
    Return TechMethods.SomeTechFunction()
  End Function
End Class


Public SomeClass
  Public Function New()
    Return Core.Tech.TechMethods.SomeTechFunction()
  End Function
End Class

Answer 1

This is mostly a matter of style but the predominant pattern in .Net is to leverage Import statements. Not using an Import statement causes unnecessary verbosity in your code. Especially when you consider the extremely long names of some .Net namespaces.

For example

Dim map As New System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary(Of System.Int32, System.String)
' vs ... 
Dim map As New Dictionary(Of Int32, String)

As I mentioned this is mostly a matter of style but there are some cases where it matters. Most importantly is the use of extension methods. The usefulness of this feature is severely limited if you don’t use any Import statements because it will restrict it to extension methods defined in the current namespace (goodbye LINQ).