C# 10 File Scoped Namespaces - How to Migrate Your Project

01 March 2023 Cliff .Net, .NET Core, Visual Studio

One of the nice new features in C# 10 is file scoped namespaces.  It clears some of the cruft and provides more horizontal space for code instead of an extra indent.  If you are using Visual Studio 2022 or later you have a couple of nice options to apply this change at a page or project level.

At a page level, you can simply add a semi-colon at the end of your traditional using statement:

namespace ApiKeyAuthentication
{
    ...
}

VS will auto refactor this to

namespace ApiKeyAuthentication;

and remove the curly braces and indentation.

If you want to apply this to your entire project, follow these steps:

  1. Create a new file in your project root called .editorconfig (or use the existing file)
  2. Under Code Style search for namespace and select File Scoped
  3. Go to one of your traditional namespace declarations, right-click it and select "Quick Actions and Refactorings". You will see a list of all refactoring actions available, and one of them will be "Convert to file-scoped namespace". At the bottom, select Project and you’ll see a preview of the changes to be made. Then click Apply.
  4. Build your project and ensure there are no errors.

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Debugging a Windows Service

20 May 2009 Cliff .Net, Visual Studio

If you are using Visual Studio and you want to debug a windows service, you may recieve the following message:

Cannot start service from the command line or a debugger.  A Windows Service must first be installed (using installutil.exe) ...

There are ways to avoid this message and this site provides a good approach http://www.worldofasp.net/tut/WindowsService/Creating_Windows_Services_in_NET_99.aspx

I have also found that in Visual Studio if you have a break point set within your service and you run the service in debug mode you can just leave the message pop up in place.  Basically, if you get the pop up, but do not click out of it, just leave things as they are and wait for the first "tick" in your service, it will then run and hit your break point.  This seems to be a work around and hopefully if you are in a pinch and need a quick way to debug a service, this will work for you.