Run bit of code if namespace exists C#

Hello guys,

I am developing an editor extension that is going to check if another asset exists in the project. So in order to do that I have decided to check if namespace(s) exist before actually running the code, in order to avoid compilation errors.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

As far as I know there's no way to check assemblies for namespaces, but I think you can do something like this, as long as you don't mind it being a bit slow. Be sure to include the System and System.Reflection namespaces first.

Code (CSharp):

1. public bool NamespaceExists(string desiredNamespace)
2. {
3.     foreach(Assembly assembly in AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies())
4.     {
5.         foreach(Type type in assembly.GetTypes())
6.         {
7.             if (type.Namespace == desiredNamespace)
8.                 return true;
9.         }
10.     }
11.     return false;
12. }

 

Will this method work with classes as well?

 

The "types" in the second loop are the classes belonging to each assembly, along with interfaces, enums, etc... so you can just check the type name you want against type.Name in that loop- I'd only do it if type.isClass is true though, since as I mentioned it includes other types as well.

You should go read the chapter in pretty much every C# book dedicated to reflection (C# Essentials, C# in a Nutshell, to name a couple books with good information) as it's a pretty interesting topic. Just be aware that Unity doesn't bother including things in the build that it can't tell are actually used in the program (classes, methods, assets), and reflection bypasses those checks, so if you use it outside of an editor extension you could be inviting problems down the line. It also gets hellishly complicated, the further you delve into it.

 

Fortunately, I am writing an editor extension that checks if another asset is inside of the project, so I do not need to check it at runtime. Phew!

Thanks for the help

 

That's reflection in a nut shell.

It's not too bad once you get used to it. But it requires some weird metal tricks to get used to the idea of treating the code you just wrote a second ago as a variable. And then you realise that your variable is manipulating other variables. And if all code is variables, does that mean that all your variables are code?

In reality it's all just ones and zeros in memory somewhere. But reflection forces you to stare that fact in the face.

 

I modified the given code to check for class names. However, it does not seem to work with basic data types like 'int', 'float' etc.

Code (CSharp):

1.     private bool HasType(string typeName) {
2.         foreach (Assembly assembly in AppDomain.CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies()) {
3.             foreach (Type type in assembly.GetTypes()) {
4.                 if (type.Name == typeName)
5.                     return true;
6.             }
7.         }
8.  
9.         return false;
10.     }

Any other solution?

 

'int' and 'float' are syntax shortcuts for the types System.Int32 and System.Single:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.int32(v=vs.110).aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.single(v=vs.110).aspx

This trick of searching types by name searches for their real names, not the syntax sugar versions of their names.

Also... why would you need to check if 'int' or 'float' exist? These are such fundamental types in C#, so much so that the language has names for them built in, that the idea of them NOT existing is ludicrous.

 

I don't want to check if 'int' or 'float' exists. I want to check if a given string such as "int" or "integer" or "Vector3" matches existing types in the assembly.

 

Ok captain pedantic... int, integer, and float still aren't types in the assembly. They're called Int32 and Single.

 

This is just what I needed also, thankyou! Am making an Editor only asset/tool that needs to check if another asset exists in the project files for certain features