c# - cast generic class to its base non-generic class

Question

I have following classes:

public abstract class CustomerBase
{
    public long CustomerNumber { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

public abstract class CustomerWithChildern<T> : CustomerBase
    where T: CustomerBase
{
    public IList<T> Childern { get; private set; }

    public CustomerWithChildern()
    {
        Childern = new List<T>();
    }
}

public class SalesOffice : CustomerWithChildern<NationalNegotiation>
{
}

The SalesOffice is just one of few classes which represent different levels of customer hierarchy. Now I need to walk through this hierarchy from some point (CustomerBase). I can't figure out how to implement without using reflection. I'd like to implement something like:

    public void WalkHierarchy(CustomerBase start)
    {
        Print(start.CustomerNumber);
        if (start is CustomerWithChildern<>)
        {
            foreach(ch in start.Childern)
            {
                WalkHierarchy(ch);
            }
        }
    }

Is there any chance I could get something like this working?

---

The solution based on suggested has-childern interface I implemented:

public interface ICustomerWithChildern
{
    IEnumerable ChildernEnum { get; }
}

public abstract class CustomerWithChildern<T> : CustomerBase, ICustomerWithChildern
    where T: CustomerBase
{
    public IEnumerable ChildernEnum { get { return Childern; } }

    public IList<T> Childern { get; private set; }

    public CustomerWithChildern()
    {
        Childern = new List<T>();
    }
}

    public void WalkHierarchy(CustomerBase start)
    {
        var x = start.CustomerNumber;
        var c = start as ICustomerWithChildern;
        if (c != null)
        {
            foreach(var ch in c.ChildernEnum)
            {
                WalkHierarchy((CustomerBase)ch);
            }
        }
    }

Answer 1

You could move the WalkHierarchy method to the base class and make it virtual. The base class implementation would only process the current node. For the CustomerWithChildern<T> class, the override would do an actual walk.