Should 'using' directives be inside or outside the namespace?

Question

I have been running StyleCop over some C# code, and it keeps reporting that my using directives should be inside the namespace.

Is there a technical rea

Answer 1

One wrinkle I ran into (that isn't covered in other answers):

Suppose you have these namespaces:

• Something.Other
• Parent.Something.Other

When you use using Something.Other outside of a namespace Parent, it refers to the first one (Something.Other).

However if you use it inside of that namespace declaration, it refers to the second one (Parent.Something.Other)!

There is a simple solution: add the "global::" prefix: docs

namespace Parent
{
   using global::Something.Other;
   // etc
}