How to “import” a static class in C#?

Question

I have created a public static class utils.cs I want to use it in other classes without prefixing method with utils, what\'s the syntax to do this ?

Answer 1

In this thread there are some questioning and argumenation about not using global methods, but I would like to add that there is another kind of scenario when static imports are desirable, i.e. when you want to bring some constants into scope. For example, if I want to construct SQL statements, I would prefer to not use duplicated string literals, as in this code example (using dynasql):

            DBQuery.Select()
            .Field("CustomerID")
            .Count("OrderID")
            .From("Orders")
            .GroupBy("CustomerID")
            .OrderBy("CustomerID")
            .WhereField("OrderDate", Compare.GreaterThan, DBConst.DateTime(ordersAfter))

I would prefer doing this:

            public class OrderTable {
                public const string Orders = "Orders";
                public const string CustomerID = "CustomerID";
                public const string OrderID = "OrderID";
                public const string OrderDate = "OrderDate";
            }
            ...
            DBQuery.Select()
            .Field(OrderTable.CustomerID)
            .Count(OrderTable.OrderID)
            .From(OrderTable.Orders)
            .GroupBy(OrderTable.CustomerID)
            .OrderBy(OrderTable.CustomerID)
            .WhereField(OrderTable.OrderDate, Compare.GreaterThan, DBConst.DateTime(ordersAfter))

If I would be using the suggestion by Loadmaster (Oct 16 at 16:49) then I could do this:

            using O = TestingDynasql.OrderTable;
          ...
            DBQuery.Select()
            .Field(O.CustomerID)
            .Count(O.OrderID)
            .From(O.Orders)
            .GroupBy(O.CustomerID)
            .OrderBy(O.CustomerID)
            .WhereField(O.OrderDate, Compare.GreaterThan, DBConst.DateTime(ordersAfter))             

However, I would prefer to bring the constant into scope without any repeated but needed name and dot qualifer at all (as you can do with Java's static imports) i.e. do this:

            DBQuery.Select()
            .Field(CustomerID)
            .Count(OrderID)
            .From(Orders)
            .GroupBy(CustomerID)
            .OrderBy(CustomerID)
            .WhereField(OrderDate, Compare.GreaterThan, DBConst.DateTime(ordersAfter))             

But it is not possible to use this kind of syntax with C# ?

By the way, does anyone know of a better .NET library for creating SQL than dynasql, which does not seem to be designed for being independent of the SQL execution (as the problem described here: http://dynasql.codeplex.com/Thread/View.aspx?ThreadId=81988) ?

/ Sven