Introduction

Microsoft defines namespaces as a logical naming scheme for grouping related types. What that means to us is that all objects used in ASP.NET are grouped by type, making them easy to find and to use. Imagine the .NET namespaces as a file cabinet. You use file cabinets to group related things to make finding them easier, and to preserve your sanity. For example, you may place the deed to your house and your mortgage coupons in one folder, while college loan papers and stubs go in another. Namespaces represent exactly the same concept. Like objects are grouped together: an HTMLInputTextBox object is grouped in the same namespace as the HTMLAnchor object, because they both represent HTML-user interface controls displayed to the user. In subsequent sections we ll be looking at all the major namespaces that ASP.NET will take advantage of.

System is the root of the namespaces. Within each namespace we can find anywhere from one to several other subnamespaces that provide programmers with the functionality needed to create and provide Web-based applications.

System.Web is a great example. Within its namespace it contains over 10 different sub-namespaces that fulfill many of the basic Web functions and then some. System.Data contains various database connectivity methods, such as communication with SQL databases and some limited Extensible Markup Language (XML) connectivity. For specialized XML connectivity we can use System.XML, which can provide everything from parsing to translating XML schemas.

Reviewing the Function of Namespaces

As mentioned...