How to alias a built-in type in C#?

c# alias
void.pointer picture void.pointer · Jul 15, 2010 · Viewed 9.1k times · Source

So in C++, I'm used to being able to do:

typedef int PeerId;

This allows me to make a type more self-documenting, but additionally also allows me to make PeerId represent a different type at any time without changing all of the code. I could even turn PeerId into a class if I wanted. This kind of extensibility is what I want to have in C#, however I am having trouble figuring out how to create an alias for 'int' in C#.

I think I can use the using statement, but it only has scope in the current file I believe, so that won't work (The alias needs to be accessible between multiple files without being redefined). I also can't derive a class from built-in types (but normally this is what I would do to alias ref-types, such as List or Dictionary). I'm not sure what I can do. Any ideas?

Answer

ChaosPandion picture ChaosPandion · Jul 15, 2010

You need to use the full type name like this:

using DWORD = System.Int32;

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