Is there a way to define C# strongly-typed aliases of existing primitive types like `string` or `int`?

Question

Perhaps I am demonstrating my ignorance of some oft-used feautre of C# or the .NET framework, but I would like to know if there is a natively-supported way to create a type alia

Answer 1

I guess I do not get why you want to have both strong types AND implicit string conversion at the same time. For me, one rules out the other.

I tried to solve the same problem for ints (you mention int in the title, but not in the question). I found that declaring an enum gives you a type-safe integer which needs to be explicitly cast from/to int.

Update

Enums may not be intended for open sets, but can still be used in such a way. This sample is from a compilation experiment to distinguish between the ID columns of several tables in a database:

    enum ProcID { Unassigned = 0 }
    enum TenderID { Unassigned = 0 }

    void Test()
    {
        ProcID p = 0;
        TenderID t = 0; <-- 0 is assignable to every enum
        p = (ProcID)3;  <-- need to explicitly convert

        if (p == t)  <-- operator == cannot be applied
            t = -1;  <-- cannot implicitly convert

        DoProc(p);
        DoProc(t);   <-- no overloaded method found
        DoTender(t);
    }

    void DoProc(ProcID p)
    {
    }

    void DoTender(TenderID t)
    {
    }