C# Using Generic Class without Specifying Type

Question

I have a generic class I have created as so:

public abstract class MyClass<T>
{
    public T Model
    {
        get;
        protected set;
    }        
}

And at some point in my code I want to do something with anything of MyClass type. Something like:

private void MyMethod(object param)
{
    myClassVar = param as MyClass;
    param.Model....etc
}

Is this possible? Or do I need to make MyClass be a subclass of something (MyClassBase) or implement an interface (IMyClass)?

Answer 1

I believe what you are need is to make MyMethod method generic and add constraint on its type parameter:

interface IMyInterface
{
    void Foobar();
}

class MyClass<T>
{
    public T Model
    {
        get;
        protected set;
    }
}

private void MyMethod<T>(MyClass<T> param) where T : IMyInterface
{
    param.Model.Foobar();
}

Answer 2

No.

You need to inherit a non-generic base class or implement a non-generic interface.

Note that you won't be able to use the Model property, since it cannot have a type (unless you constrain it to a base type and implement an untyped property explicitly).