Best practices: C# Extension methods namespace and promoting extension methods

c# extension-methods
Juri picture Juri · Aug 4, 2009 · Viewed 19.8k times · Source

I know there exists already a post, describing nearly the same, but I think mine is a bit different.

What I would like to know is how you organize your extension methods in terms of assigning the namespace. Currently - for the extension methods in our framework - I use the following namespace pattern

  • MyCompany.Web.Utils

and inside I have the extension method classes. This is fine for me with the disadvantage that the extenders are not immediately visible to our software developers. Consider the case where I have a StringExtender class which provides a quite handy extension method "In" that extends the String object. Having the extension method withing the above mentioned namespace, our programmers won't see the extension method unless they explicitly include its namespace. Instead, if I would put the extension method in the System namespace, everyone would immediately see it, but I've read that this is bad practice.

So my question is how you do promote your extension methods s.t. they are used by your developers.

Answer

JP Alioto picture JP Alioto · Aug 4, 2009

We put them all in their own namespace Company.Common.Extensions. That way, if you have any of our extension methods, you have them all. Plus, at least at my shop, we don't have to worry about our developers not knowing about extension methods. I have the opposite worry, extension method overload! :)

Related questions

Distinct() with lambda?

Right, so I have an enumerable and wish to get distinct values from it. Using System.Linq, there's of course an extension method called Distinct. In the simple case, it can be used with no parameters, like: var distinctValues = myStringList.…

Read More
Extension methods must be defined in a non-generic static class

I'm getting the error: Extension methods must be defined in a non-generic static class On the line: public class LinqHelper Here is the helper class, based on Mark Gavells code. I'm really confused as to what this error means as …

Read More
Convert string[] to int[] in one line of code using LINQ

I have an array of integers in string form: var arr = new string[] { "1", "2", "3", "4" }; I need to an array of 'real' integers to push it further: void Foo(int[] arr) { .. } I tried to cast int and it of course failed: Foo(…

Read More