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A reader asked me how to work with multiple projects in Visual Studio Code and after fumbling a little I realized I had no idea. So I started trying out things.

First I created a folder in which I created two other folders ingeniously named Proj1 and Proj2. I went in both and ran dotnet new console and dotnet new classlib respectively. I moved the Console.WriteLine("Hello World!"); code from the console Program.cs in a static method in the Class1 class, then called the method from Program.cs Main, then tried to find ways of referencing Proj2 from Proj1 in Visual Studio Code.

And here I got stuck. I tried the smart solutions VS Code recommended, but none of them included adding a reference. I right clicked on everything to no avail. I wrote using Proj2; by hand hoping that Code will magically understand I need a project reference. I googled, only to find old articles that discussed project.json, not .csproj type of .NET projects.

In the end I was resigned to write the reference by hand. I opened Proj1.csproj and added
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectReference Include="..\Proj2\Proj2.csproj"/>
</ItemGroup>

After saving the file and going to the unresolved Class1 reference, I now got using Proj2; as an option to fix it. And now I got to the problem my reader was having. When trying to run Proj1, I got Unhandled Exception: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly 'Proj2, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'. The system cannot find the file specified. at Proj1.Program.Main(String[] args).

It's disgustingly easy to solve, you just need to know what to do. Either Ctrl-Shit-P and type restore, then select restoring Proj1 or do it manually by going to the Proj1 folder and running dotnet restore by hand. After that the project is compiled and runs.

Summary:
  1. add project reference by hand to .csproj file
  2. resolve whatever compilation errors you have by specifying the correct usings or inlining namespaces
  3. dotnet restore the project you added references to

Comments

Siderite

You can create a folder where you put both projects, thus opening them both in the editor. That&#39;s what I did here. Note that the reference is to ..\Proj2, so up a level.

Siderite

tauBootist

Very helpful indeed. This appears to just create the reference to the other project. Is there something special that must be done to load both projects in the editor? I thought this available in the 1.14 update.

tauBootist

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