Namespace not found error when trying to compile

Question

Edit: Changing the class name or namespace name so that the namespace and class don't have the same name doesn't fix this issue.

I have this super simple code:

Program.cs:

using System;
using CodeCleaner;

class Program
{

    private static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("DocTypeChecker instantiated");

        var codeCleaner = new CodeCleaner.CodeCleaner();
    }
}

CodeCleaner.cs:

using System;

namespace CodeCleaner
{
    public class CodeCleaner
    {

        public CodeCleaner()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("CodeCleaner instantiated");
        }

    }
}

This produces the following error when I try to compile when I run $ csc Program.cs:

Program.cs(4,7): error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'CodeCleaner' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?).

I'm definitely not missing a using directive for CodeCleaner, but what it means with assembly reference I have no idea. Other solutions on the web didn't help me in this case. Anyone know the issue here?

I think the issue is the same name for namespace and class name. — vik_78
That is not the issue. I tried changing the namespace name to NCodeCleaner and the issue persists (it then says namespace name 'NCodeCleaner' not found), so same issue. — erol_smsr
Is CodeCleaner in the same assembly as Program? If not, then Program's assembly needs to reference the assembly which has CodeCleaner. — Loring
If namespace and class names are the same can cause trouble but not in this case that he uses fully with name space and class name together like : new CodeCleaner.CodeCleaner() — Ashkan Mobayen Khiabani

Michaili Michaili · Accepted Answer · 2019-04-08T17:09:18

Running csc Program.cs won't compile CodeCleaner.cs, so your assembly will be missing the CodeCleaner class and namespace. Using csc Program.cs CodeCleaner.cs should do the trick.

Namespace not found error when trying to compile

1 Answers