Is it possible to declare an alias with .net type?

Question

Is it possible to declare an alias with .net type ? in c# and if so how ?

Answer 1

As others have said, use the "using alias=type;" form of the using directive. Couple things about that:

1) It's got to be the first thing in the file or the namespace. (Unless you have extern alias directives of course; they go before the using directives.)

2) The alias is not a true type. A lot of people would like to see:

using PopsicleCount=System.Int32;
using GiraffeCount=System.Int32;
...
PopsicleCount p = 123;
GiraffeCount g = p; // ERROR, can't convert a count of giraffes into a count of popsicles

But we don't support that feature. It's a true alias; we just substitute the alising type in for the aliased identifier when we see it; p and g are both of type int.

3) The alias only applies in the file or namespace declaration it appears in. If you want to use an alias in every file in your program, you'll have to write it in every file in your program.

4) Aliases cannot be parameterized on the alias name side, though they can be closed generic types on the type side. That is, this is legal:

using GiraffeList = System.Collections.Generic.List<Giraffe>;

but this is not:

using Frobtionary<T> = System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary<Frob, T>;

Answer 2

For example:

using MatchBuilderFactoryFunc = System.Func<
    IndexerBase.RequestMatching.RequestFreeTextAnalyzeParameter,
    System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<
        IndexerBase.RequestMatching.IMatchBuilder>>;

And after all use it as simple type:

MatchBuilderFactoryFunc f = ...