Can I replace a C# method with another with the same name and signature?

Question

I have a following situation. Some .Net runtime method doesn't work very well and I need to craft a workaround. Like there's SqlCommand.ExecuteReader() which sometimes returns a closed reader object and I want to have code like this:

 SqlDataReader MyExecuteReader( this SqlCommand command )
 {
     var reader = command.ExecuteReader();
     if( reader.IsClosed() ) {
        throw new ClosedReaderReturnedException();
     }
     return reader;
 }

This would be just fine except I now need to change all the code that calls ExecuteReader() so that it now calls MyExecuteReader() and it makes maintenance harder.

Is there a way to somehow declare that whenever any of my code wants SqlCommand.ExecuteReader() called MyExecuteReader() is called instead? Effectively is it possible to replace an existing method with another one having exactly the same signature and the same name?

Answer 1

No, what you want is not supported. If the class is not sealed, and the method is not static, you could inherit the class with the same name in a different namespace and change the using, and override the method. But that is a limited solution.

Your best option would be to implement standart extension method with a different name, and replace all usages. This might seems like a lot of work in a large code base, and might be prone to human errors down the road - someone adding new call to the original method. However, the one time cost is offset by the fact that your code now is explicit that you have made modifications to the behavior; and you can guard against human errors by writing your own custom FxCop rule (or whatever static analysis tool you are running regularly).