How to share classes between .NET projects without using a library?

Question

I have two projects - one is a test one, other is the final version. I know there is a possibility to put shared code into a library, but I want that compiled result will be a single file, without any additional DLLs.

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 21 '13 at 07:04

2

You can make use of ILMerge which will merge number of .Net assemblies to a single assembly.

answered Oct 21 '13 at 07:04

Sriram Sakthivel

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score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:05

You should usually be able to add the same source code file to more than one project. In C#, for example, projects can contain links to files that are stored in other locations and that will be included in the compilation like any other files.

In Visual Studio 2012, for example, the selected answer to this question points out that you can drag files into a project while pressing the Alt key to create a link.
This article points out that a respective option is found in the Open file dialog when adding an existing file in some versions of Visual Studio.
In SharpDevelop 4, you can use Add -> Existing item from the project (or a project folder's) context menu to select an existing file to add to the project; if that file is outside of the folder hierarchy of your project; SharpDevelop will ask you whether you want to copy the file or just create a link to it.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 21 '13 at 07:05

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

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

How to share classes between .NET projects without using a library?

3 Answers3