How to Hide a member method by an Extension Method

Question

public static class MyClass
{
    public static void Add<T>(this List<T> list, T item)
    {
        list.Add(item);
        Console.WriteLine(item.ToString());
    }
}

then

List<string> list = new List<string>(){"1","2"};
list.Add("3");

But the member method would be called.

Is there anyway to call my Extension Method this way?

I don't want to call it like this:

MyClass.Add(list, item)

Answer 1

You can't. Instance methods always take precedence over extension methods, assuming they're applicable. Member resolution will only consider extension methods once it's failed to find a non-extension-method option.

I would suggest you simply rename your method - unless the point was to call this method transparently with existing code.

If you made it take an IList<T> instead of List<T>, you could create a wrapper type which implements IList<T> and delegates all calls onto the wrapped list, performing any extra tasks as you go. You could then also write an extension method to IList<T> which created the wrapper - which would allow for more fluent syntax in some cases. Personally I prefer the wrapper approach to deriving a new collection type, as it means you can use it with your existing collections, making the code changes potentially smaller... but it all depends on what you're trying to do.