Clarify what constitutes a type conflict in CS0436 compiler warning documentation

[Copilot]

Summary

Fixes #[issue_number] by enhancing the CS0436 compiler warning documentation to explicitly explain what constitutes a "conflict" between types.

Problem

The original issue reporter, working on the Ecma C# spec, encountered CS0436 and found the documentation unclear about what actually causes the conflict. The existing documentation showed two type declarations that differed only by a string literal in their implementations, but didn't explain whether:

• The different string literals were the conflict, or
• The identical type names were the conflict

This ambiguity left developers uncertain about the fundamental cause of the warning.

Changes

Added "What constitutes a conflict" section

Explicitly defines that a conflict occurs when two types have identical fully qualified names (namespace + type name), regardless of implementation differences. The section clarifies:

• The three criteria that must match: same namespace, same type name, and both accessible
• That implementation details (methods, properties, field values) are irrelevant to the conflict
• That the compiler cannot use both types simultaneously because they have the same identity

Enhanced the introduction

Changed from the vague "conflicts with an imported type" to explicitly state "has the same fully qualified name (namespace and type name) as a type imported from a referenced assembly."

Improved example explanation

• Added contextual explanations before and between code samples
• Explicitly notes that the two A types have the fully qualified name A (in the global namespace)
• Added a prominent note after the output emphasizing: "the conflict exists even though the two A types have different implementations. The difference in the string literal... doesn't prevent the conflict. What matters is that both types have the same fully qualified name A."

Added "How to resolve this warning" section

Provides four concrete resolution strategies:

1. Rename one of the conflicting types
2. Use a different namespace for one of the types
3. Remove the reference to the assembly containing the conflicting type if not needed
4. Use an extern alias to disambiguate (with link to CS0433 for examples)

Impact

The enhanced documentation now clearly answers the question: the conflict is based on identical fully qualified type names, not on implementation differences. This removes ambiguity and helps developers understand that syntactic or semantic differences in the type definitions don't prevent conflicts when the types share the same fully qualified name.

Original prompt

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This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>CS0436: Request for details on what actually constitutes a "conflict"</issue_title>
<issue_description>### Type of issue

Missing information

Description

I'm working on the Ecma C# spec and just got this error on a test program. However, I don't find a useful explanation here.

Looking at your two type declarations for A they appear to vary only by the spelling of one source token, the string literal. If that is the conflict, please say so, and if there are any other kinds of conflicts possible in other scenarios, I'd like to know about them as well. Perhaps the types need to be syntactically and semantically equivalent/identical!

[Enter feedback here]

Page URL

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/misc/cs0436?f1url=%3FappId%3Droslyn%26k%3Dk(CS0436)

Content source URL

https://github.com/dotnet/docs/blob/main/docs/csharp/misc/cs0436.md

Document Version Independent Id

b320743f-f0ef-2174-df91-f0ddbb612e88

Platform Id

d0bdb84e-52a8-9c98-dfe6-76f4af3d5ea3

Article author

@BillWagner

Metadata

• ID: 6493b5de-9d48-3a99-e213-06fdb121e067
• PlatformId: d0bdb84e-52a8-9c98-dfe6-76f4af3d5ea3
• Service: dotnet-csharp
• Sub-service: errors-warnings

Related Issues</issue_description>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

Fixes #47460

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Internal previews

📄 File	🔗 Preview link
docs/csharp/misc/cs0436.md	docs/csharp/misc/cs0436

[BillWagner]

This is ready for final review.