49

First, a little background.

Currently namespaces and assemblies in our codebase (~60 assemblies, thousands of classes) looks like

WidgetCompany.Department.Something

We have now been spun off such that we are selling the software that drives a WidgetCompany, so we 'd like to rename the namespaces & assemblies

NewCompany.Something

Under normal circumstances I'd probably just stick with the old namespace, but the problem is our customers don't want to see the name of one of their competitors anywhere in the application. In the off chance that they see a stack trace, assembly properties etc, it shouldn't show up. It's not meant to hide our associates or do anything sinister, we just need to make sure that people know we are a separate entity, separate management, and they don't need to worry about data being shared etc.

Now the question. What is the best way to perform this type of all encompassing rename? The following would need to change:

  • Namespace for (almost) every class in the application
  • Every using statement in the application which references the old names
  • Folder structure for each project
  • References between projects which rely on changed folder structure
  • .Sln files which reference the changed folder structure
  • Any references to those classes which are fully qualified (should be few and far between)
  • Any references to those classes in xml config files (config sections etc)
  • AssemblyInfo.cs files for every assembly
  • AssemblyName in every .csproj file

Am I stuck with the find-replace-pray strategy or is there something better?

Brook
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  • Check in, find-replace, build. Or ReSharper, probably. –  Jan 26 '11 at 19:46
  • Is the new NameSpace in a new .dll or same dll with namespace changed and recompiled – Shekhar_Pro Jan 26 '11 at 19:48
  • Does resharper have a refactor=>change namespace? It's been a while since I've used it, but I didn't think it did. – Brook Jan 26 '11 at 19:48
  • @Shekhar_Pro: I guess that defines how you define a new dll. It will be a differently named dll containing differently namespaced classes, but I was thinking I'd leave the .csproj files in place and just rename things. I'm open to creating new projects if there's an easy way. – Brook Jan 26 '11 at 19:50
  • Resharper's refactor does include a namespace rename option. http://www.jetbrains.com/resharper/documentation/help20/Refactoring/renaming.html – Bob G Jan 26 '11 at 19:54
  • as @Will suggested the strategy would be to find and replace and then remove the reference to old dll and build the solution.. any errors will point you to where you missed renaming.. Also i think Resharper will be a good alternative – Shekhar_Pro Jan 26 '11 at 19:55
  • Interesting, it looks like resharper has a new refactoring called "Adjust Namespaces", that has promise! – Brook Jan 26 '11 at 20:10
  • I also revised the question to include the folder structure related items (folders themselves, sln files, .csproj files, references etc) – Brook Jan 26 '11 at 20:20
  • Don't forget to rename the Assembly Name and Default Namespace in each project's Properties. If you don't, all new classes, controllers, etc will have the old namespace, and Resharper will nag you endlessly to adjust the namespaces. – Robert Corvus May 03 '12 at 19:07
  • @RobertCorvus: Those are stored in the .csproj (default namespace) and AssemblyInfo.cs (assembly name) as listed above. – Brook May 03 '12 at 20:33

8 Answers8

61

Right click on your current namespace and select Refactor -> Rename and change the name in the pop up that comes up after a while. Enter your new name and click ok.

If you have multiple depths to your namespace, then Visual Studio won't let you type a dot. However, if you copy and paste a dot, despite a warning, it will do the business.

To completely change to the new name, you will likely need to make additional changes manually. You can find where by performing a project search (ctrl+shift+f) for other references to the name in the Project, Solution, or other supporting files from a separate text editor like VS Code. Finally, folders may need to be changed manually as well.

Robert P
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franklins
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    Last time I checked that doesn't work for multiple levels of a namespace such as level1.level2.level3. If the namespace is a single level, without a dot, then it works fine. This was VS 2008 SP1. – SRM Jan 26 '11 at 19:55
  • I guess you could do it one symbol at a time. (I havent tried that though.) – franklins Jan 26 '11 at 19:57
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    +1 because that helps with the strongly typed stuff, but doesn't help with the assembly names, csproj files, xml files etc. – Brook Jan 26 '11 at 20:02
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    It doesn't seem to help if you want to add some additional namespace at the root – Snowbear Jan 26 '11 at 20:10
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    Downvoted as incorrect. Doesn't answer the original question, since you can't move or remove namespace components this way. – yoyo Oct 24 '14 at 20:44
  • Simple namespace change works, but obvious places are missed like cshtml files. I had to do a find and replace all at the end. (VS2013) – Adam Ocsvari Apr 22 '15 at 18:00
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    Re multi level changes (with dots). This bug still exists (VS 2015) in that it won't let you *type* a dot. However, if you copy and *paste* a dot, despite a warning, it will do the business. – Bob Sammers Jul 13 '16 at 08:53
  • I should say that the above comment is useful for *adding* levels; it doesn't help to take them away or rename multiple levels in one go. – Bob Sammers Jul 13 '16 at 09:28
  • @BobSammers This should be included in the answer! Copying and pasting did it! – TigerBear Oct 13 '16 at 09:29
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    @BobSammers I added your response to the answer. I think it would help a lot of people since most probably don't look through comments. – TigerBear Oct 13 '16 at 09:31
  • I am wondering why dot is not allowed, that is weird that we should copy a dot instead of typing it. – Mohammed Noureldin Dec 09 '17 at 23:07
10

ReSharper. Get version 5.1 from JetBrains for free for 30 days (more than enough time to do your renaming). Put the cursor on the namespace you want to change and hit Ctrl-R twice (ReSharper Rename). It'll work with a namespace any number of levels deep, and converts any usage of that namespace to the new one. However, you will have to change every unique namespace in your solution (unless you just go with Find/Replace)

Misha Akopov
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KeithS
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9

Visual Studio 2019 Community Edition supports this as described here. It works for any hierarchy (with dots, root namespace changes etc) and correctly updates all dependencies.

  1. Place your cursor in the class name

  2. Press Ctrl+. to trigger the Quick Actions and Refactorings menu

  3. Select Move to namespace Move to namespace refactoring

  4. In the dialog box that opens, select the target namespace you'd like to move the type to Select a namespace dialog box

Misha Akopov
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DeepSpace101
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5

If you have ReSharper:

  1. Right click project, Properties. Change Default namespace to desired namespace.

  2. Right click project, Refactor -> Adjust Namespace to update all the namespaces to use the default namespace

Then just let it do its magic.

Yodacheese
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4

For Visual Studio 2022 this has finally been solved:

  • Right-click on the project or solution (not the directory or file)
  • Select "Sync Namespaces"

The namespaces in your entire project should now reflect the folder structure.

Jonathan E. Landrum
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3

Firstly I would try Refactor->Rename option. But as mentioned in comment for another answers it doesn't work that good (Or I haven't found how to make it working). So I prefer using following scenario, especially if you want to add some addiotional namespace.

1) Rename your root namespace (WidgetCompany) to something like NAMESPACE_TO_BE_REPLACED using Refactor-Rename
2) Replace NAMESPACE_TO_BE_REPLACED with your final namespace (NewCompany.WidgetSoftware) using find-n-replace dialog

And do not forget to rename projects, default namespaces, etc.

Snowbear
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1
  • Open a random class in [WidgetCompany.Department.Something]
  • Edit->Find and Replace->Replace in Files
  • Type "WidgetCompany.Department.Something" in FindWhat area
  • Type "NewCompany.Something" in Replace with area
  • Select Current Project in Look in area.
  • Replace All
Bora Aydın
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1

Alternative solution if you've already partially renamed:

  • Open find and replace (shortcut ctrl + h)
  • Make sure regex is selected (icon like .*)
  • Paste the full name of your current namespace, for example YourSolution.YourProject
  • Paste this regex YourSolution.Your[partiallyRenamedNamespaceCharacters].*
  • Make sure Entire Solution is selected not Current Document
  • Run
Misha Akopov
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TomDane
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