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Using Multiple Programming Language In An ASP.Net Project

Consider a scenario in which you are working on a web based application having C# as a code behind language. Your team lead has given you a task to write some validation functions for the project. You realized that in the previous project you have written the same code, but in vb.net.

To accomplish the task you have decided to convert the vb.net code to C# code. But when you try the converted code in your project you got some error because the conversion tool you have used is not good.

There is one way from which you can reuse the code in your project. You can use multiple programming languages in a single project. In this tutorial we will discuss how to implement it.

Error While Adding The Files In A Single Folder

First of all we will see what is the error we have got when we use different programming language files in a single folder. Suppose you have added file1.cs and file2.vb in app_code folder.

When you compile the code you will get the following error

The files '/Project_Name/App_Code/file2.vb' and '/Project_Name/App_Code/file1.cs' use a different language, which is not allowed since they need to be compiled together.

Solution

You can fix this issue and use different programming language. What you need to do is change the folder structure and adds some code in web.config file.

First of all create 2 folders in app_code folder. Let us say the name of the folders are csharpcode and vbcode. The former folder contains the code written in C# language and later one contains the cod written in vb.net.

Add files in the respective folder. So the folder structure would be

Click to Enlarge

Now add functions in csharpClass.cs and vbClass.vb files.

Vbclass.Vb

Imports Microsoft.VisualBasic

Public Class vbClass
    Public Function A() As String
        Return "vb code"
    End Function
End Class

Csharpclass.Cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;

/// <summary>
/// Summary description for csharpClass
/// </summary>
public class csharpClass {
  public csharpClass() {
    //
    // TODO: Add constructor logic here
    //
  }
  public string A() {
    return "C# code";
  }
}

add the code in web.config file. Add the code in the < compilation > tag

<codeSubDirectories>
	<add directoryName="csharpcode"/>
	<add directoryName="vbcode"/>
</codeSubDirectories>

Now we are done. Let us call both the functions. Write the following code on page load event.

vbClass obj1 = new vbClass();
Response.Write(obj1.A());

csharpClass obj2 = new csharpClass();
Response.Write(obj2.A());

When you run the program you will get the following output

vb codeC# code

Conclusion

We can use different programming language on condition that we have change the folder structure and add some tags in web.config file.

Posted By -	Karan Gupta

Posted On -	Thursday, December 1, 2011

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