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What is the difference between a Visual Studio solution and a Visual Studio project. I have read questions like this: Visual Studio Project vs. Solution

I am specifically interested in solutions that contain multiple solutions. Why would a solution that contains many solutions be used instead of one solution that contains many projects?

I support and develop solutions that contain multiple projects.

Community
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w0051977
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    Please read your question and correct it. `What is the difference between a Visual Studio solution and a Visual Studio.`. And a Visual Studio what? – Oded Nov 09 '12 at 19:08
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    This question barely makes sense! Does the author mean solutions vs. projects? – Andy Brown Nov 09 '12 at 19:09
  • Thanks Oded. I missed out a single word: project. Sorry if this caused confusion. I have edited the question. – w0051977 Nov 09 '12 at 19:10

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You can't have a solution contain solutions. Period.

Solutions are containers for projects and items shared between projects. They also track dependencies between projects.

Oded
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  • I was confusing myself looking at some source code, which I downloaded online (open source). Can you explain what you mean by: "track dependencies between projects" – w0051977 Nov 09 '12 at 19:16
  • @w0051977 - What don't you understand about that statement? Do you know that you can add a project reference to a project? Solutions are where the meta data for this is stored. – Oded Nov 09 '12 at 19:18
  • I understand that a dependency occurs when a reference is created from one project to another. I don't fully understand why a solution that contains multiple projects helps to "manage" dependencies, except for the fact that all references are created and removed in one place i.e. one solution. Thanks. – w0051977 Nov 09 '12 at 19:23
  • @w0051977 - There is an implicit build order to the projects, that Visual Studio can get wrong. The manual changes to this are stored in the solution file. – Oded Nov 09 '12 at 19:30