T4 Import Directive

  • Article

In the code blocks of a Visual Studio T4 text template, the import directive allows you to refer to elements in another namespace without providing a fully-qualified name. It is the equivalent of using in C# or imports in Visual Basic.

For a general overview of writing T4 text templates, see Writing a T4 Text Template.

Using the Import Directive

<#@ import namespace="namespace" #>

In this example, template code can omit an explicit namespace for members of System.IO:

<#@ import namespace="System.IO" #>
<# 
   string fileContent = File.ReadAllText("C:\x.txt"); // System.IO.File
#> 
The file contains: <#=  fileContent #>

Standard Imports

The following namespace is imported automatically, so that you do not need to write an import directive for it:

  • System

In addition, if you use a custom directive, the directive processor might import some namespaces automatically.

For example, if you write templates for a domain-specific language (DSL), you do not need to write import directives for the following namespaces:

  • Microsoft.VisualStudio.Modeling

  • Your DSL’s namespace

See Also

Other Resources

Assembly Directive