How do you share code between projects/solutions in Visual Studio?

.net visual-studio code-sharing
pupeno picture pupeno · Jul 12, 2009 · Viewed 215k times · Source

I have two solutions which have some common code, so I'd like to extract it out and share it between them. Furthermore, I'd like to be able to release that library independently because it might be useful to others.

  • What's the best way to do it with Visual Studio 2008?
  • Is a project present in more than one solution?
  • Do I have a separate solution for the separate piece of code?
  • Can a solution depend on another one?

Answer

Andomar picture Andomar · Aug 1, 2010

You can "link" a code file between two projects. Right click your project, choose Add -> Existing item, and then click the down arrow next to the Add button:

Screengrab

In my experience linking is simpler than creating a library. Linked code results in a single executable with a single version.

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