C# Namespace Alias qualifier (::) vs Dereferencing Operator (.)
Quick and simple question. I kind of understand what the Namespace Alias qualifier does, it's for accessing members in a namespace, however so does the dereferencing operator. I am really baffled as to the difference in this situation, why you would use one over the other, or how they each accomplish the same thing. using colAlias = System.Collections; namespace myns { class TestApp { static void Main() { colAlias.Hashtable test = new colAlias.Hashtable(); colAlias::Hashtable test1 = new colAlias::Hashtable(); } } } This is a corner case :: (like the @ prefix) is there to deal with the fairly