C# Language Specification

Hiding through nesting

Name hiding through nesting can occur as a result of nesting namespaces or types within namespaces, as a result of nesting types within classes or structs, and as a result of parameter and local variable declarations.

In the example

class A
{
int i = 0;

void F() {

int i = 1;
}

void G() {

i = 1;
}
}

within the F method, the instance variable i is hidden by the local variable i, but within the G method, i still refers to the instance variable.

When a name in an inner scope hides a name in an outer scope, it hides all overloaded occurrences of that name. In the example

class Outer

{
static void F(int i) {}

static void F(string s) {}

class Inner
{
void G() {
F(1); // Invokes Outer.Inner.F
F("Hello"); // Error
}

static void F(long l) {}

}
}

the call F(1) invokes the F declared in Inner because all outer occurrences of F are hidden by the inner declaration. For the same reason, the call F("Hello") results in a compile-time error.

2.