In the example below, we have two using statements.  One provides an alias for the outer DogLibrary namespace, so that you can use types from the DogLibrary namespace by just using the type name.  The second aliases the DogLibrary.Utility namespace, so that you can use types defined in the inner namespace.

using DogLibrary;
using DogLibrary.Utility;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            // DogLibrary.Dog
            Dog d = new Dog();

            // DogLibrary.Utility.DogLogger
            DogLogger logger = new DogLogger();
        }
    }

In the example below, we have a Dog class defined within the top-level DogLibrary namespace.  The full name for this type is DogLibrary.Dog.  We also define a Utility namespace within the DogLibrary namespace, and a DogLogger class whose full name is then DogLibrary.Utility.DogLogger.

namespace DogLibrary
{
    public class Dog
    {
    }

    namespace Utility
    {
        public class DogLogger
        {
        }
    }
}

In the example below, we declare a Dog class in both the EarthDogs and AlienDogs namespaces.

namespace EarthDogs
{
    public class Dog
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }

        public void Bark()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Woooof");
        }
    }
}

namespace AlienDogs
{
    public class Dog
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }

        public void Bark()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Snarkzuggrootzen");
        }
    }
}

(In practice, for these classes, you’d probably instead declare a Dog parent class and subclasses EarthDog and AlienDog, which would override the Bark method).

A using directive tells the compiler what namespaces to look for types in, avoiding the need for fully qualified type names.

Assume that we have a Dog type, defined in the DogLibrary namespace.  The fully qualified type name is DogLibrary.Dog.  But in the code fragment below, we can just use Dog as the type name, because of the using directive.

using DogLibrary;

namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            Dog kirby = new Dog();
            kirby.Bark();
        }
    }
}

So you can use a type name without its namespace if:

• The type is defined in the same namespace as the current code
• A using directive for the type’s namespace is present

            DogLibrary.Dog kirby = new DogLibrary.Dog();
            kirby.Bark();

If you’re writing code that exists in the same namespace as a type, you can omit the namespace and just use the short version of the type name.

namespace DogLibrary
{
    public class Dog
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public int Age { get; set; }

        public void Bark()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("WOOOOOF!");
        }
    }

    public static class DogFactory
    {
        public static Dog MakeDog(string name, int age)
        {
            // Can just use "Dog" as type name
            Dog d = new Dog();
            d.Name = name;
            d.Age = age;
            return d;
        }
    }
}

You use the namespace keyword to define a namespace.  All types defined within the pair of braces that follow the namespace name then belong to that namespace.

In the example below, the Dog class belongs to the DogLibrary namespace.

namespace DogLibrary
{
    public class Dog
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public int Age { get; set; }

        public void Bark()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("WOOOOOF!");
        }
    }
}

Because Dog is defined within the DogLibrary namespace, the fully qualifed name of the Dog type is DogLibrary.Dog.

Create a struct, rather than a class, when all of the following is true:

• You want value type semantics, that is–a variable of this type directly contains the data and a copy is made whenever you assign the value to a new variable or pass the variable to a method
• Data stored in the struct won’t be modified after an instance is created or does not change very often
• You don’t need to inherit from another type (a struct inherits only from System.ValueType)
• You need to store only a small amount of data in the type

• A struct is a value type (instance created on the stack); a class is a reference type (instance created on the heap)
• A variable defined as a struct type contains the actual data in the struct; a variable defined as a class type references or points to the data stored in the instance of the class
• Memory for a struct is released when its variable goes out of scope; memory for a class instance is released when the object is garbage collected
• When a struct is assigned to a new variable, a copy is made (changes to the original are not reflected in the copy); when an instance of a class is assigned to a new variable, the new variable references the existing instance
• When a struct is passed to a method, a copy is made

In the example below, we split the implementation of the Dog class between Dog.cs and Dog-IBark.cs.  The latter file contains the implementation of the IBark interface.  The class definition in both files is marked with the partial keyword.

    // Dog.cs
    public partial class Dog
    {
        public string Name { get; set; }
        public int Age { get; set; }

        /// <summary>
        /// Create new Dog with specified name
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="name"></param>
        public Dog(string name, int age)
        {
            Name = name;
            Age = age;
        }
    }

    partial class Dog : IBark
    {
        public bool CanBark { get; set; }

        public void Bark()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("WOOOOOF!");
        }
    }

Notice that we don’t specify IBark inheritance in the first file, because it does not implement any IBark methods.