C# - advanced inheritance

Question

Please take a look at my class structure. I think I would like to have more fun with inheritance than it is possible.

First there is a base abstract class:

public abstract class PolicyDetailed
{
    internal abstract DataContainer GetActiveAsset();
}

Next there is another abstract class, which is generic:

public abstract class PolicyDetailed<T> : PolicyDetailed where T : DataContainer
{
    internal new abstract T GetActiveAsset();
}

Lastly there is a specific policy class. AccidentContainer inherits from DataContainer:

public class PolicyAccident : PolicyDetailed<AccidentContainer>
{
    internal override AccidentContainer GetActiveAsset()
    {
        return null;
    }
}

During compilation I get the following error:

'PolicyAccident' does not implement inherited abstract member 'PolicyDetailed.GetActiveAsset()'  

I am not sure what modifiers I should use here to get it to work. Maybe I should also write what I would like to achieve: I have a collection of policy objects of different type (e.g. PolicyAccident, PolicyTravel etc.) which inherit from PolicyDetailed with different types of DataContainer (AccidentContainer, TravelContainer etc.). I would like to call "GetActiveAsset" method on each of them without knowing their specific type and referencing them through PolicyDetailed. At the same time I would like each class to return their specific Datacontainer subclass. Is that possible?

Answer 1

The problem is that you can't override the non-generic method in the same class as you declare any other method with the same signature.

There are a few options:

• By far the simplest is to give the two methods different names. Then you can give an implementation in PolicyDetailed<T> which just delegates to the new abstract method:

  public abstract class PolicyDetailed
  {
      internal abstract DataContainer GetActiveAsset();
  }
  
  public abstract class PolicyDetailed<T> : PolicyDetailed where T : DataContainer
  {
      internal abstract T GetActiveAssetGeneric();
  
      internal override DataContainer GetActiveAsset()
      {
          return GetActiveAssetGeneric();
      }
  }
  
  public class PolicyAccident : PolicyDetailed<AccidentContainer>
  {
      internal override AccidentContainer GetActiveAssetGeneric()
      {
          return null;
      }    
  }
  

• You could introduce another level of inheritance, introducing a new method name just for bridging purposes. This is pretty ugly:

  public class DataContainer {}
  public class AccidentContainer : DataContainer{}
  
  public abstract class PolicyDetailed
  {
      internal abstract DataContainer GetActiveAsset();
  }
  
  // This only exists to satisfy the base class abstract member,
  // but at the same time allowing PolicyDetailed<T> to introduce
  // a new member with the same name.
  public abstract class PolicyDetailedBridge<T> : PolicyDetailed
      where T : DataContainer
  {
      protected abstract T GetActiveAssetGeneric();
  
      internal override DataContainer GetActiveAsset()
      {
          return GetActiveAssetGeneric();
      }
  }
  
  public abstract class PolicyDetailed<T> : PolicyDetailedBridge<T>
      where T : DataContainer
  {
      protected sealed override T GetActiveAssetGeneric()
      {
          // Call the *new* abstract method. Eek!
          return GetActiveAsset();
      }
  
      internal abstract new T GetActiveAsset();
  }
  
  public class PolicyAccident : PolicyDetailed<AccidentContainer>
  {
      internal override AccidentContainer GetActiveAsset()
      {
          return null;
      }            
  }
  

• You could make the non-generic PolicyDetailed class an interface instead, and use explicit interface implementation to declare a new abstract method and still implement the interface.