Two parameters causes 'Method in Type does not have an implementation' Exception? [duplicate]

Question

I've got a very weird bug on our test machine. The error is:

System.TypeLoadException: Method 'SetShort' in type 'DummyItem' from assembly 'ActiveViewers (...)' does not have an implementation.

I just can't understand why. SetShort is there in the DummyItem class, and I've even recompiled a version with writes to the event log just to make sure that it's not a deployment/versioning issue. The weird thing is that the calling code doesn't even call the SetShort method.

Answer 1

I got this when my application didn't have a reference to another assembly defining a class that the method in the error message used. Running PEVerify gave more helpful error: "The system cannot find the file specified."

Answer 2

I got this error because I had a class in an assembly 'C' which was on version 4.5 of the framework, implementing an interface in assembly 'A' which was on version 4.5.1 of the framework and serving as the base class to assembly 'B' which was also on version 4.5.1 of the framework. The system threw the exception while trying to load assembly 'B'. Additionally, I had installed some nuget packages targeting .net 4.5.1 on all three assemblies. For some reason, even though the nuget references were not showing in assembly 'B', it was building successfully.

It turned out that the real issue was that the assemblies were referencing different versions of a nuget package that contained the interface and the interface signature had changed between versions.

Answer 3

NOTE - If this answer doesn't help you, please take the time to scroll down through the other answers that people have added since.

Short answer

This can happen if you add a method to an interface in one assembly, and then to an implementing class in another assembly, but you rebuild the implementing assembly without referencing the new version of the interface assembly.

In this case, DummyItem implements an interface from another assembly. The SetShort method was recently added to both the interface and the DummyItem - but the assembly containing DummyItem was rebuilt referencing the previous version of the interface assembly. So the SetShort method is effectively there, but without the magic sauce linking it to the equivalent method in the interface.

Long answer

If you want to try reproducing this, try the following:

1. Create a class library project: InterfaceDef, add just one class, and build:

   public interface IInterface
   {
       string GetString(string key);
       //short GetShort(string key);
   }
   

2. Create a second class library project: Implementation (with separate solution), copy InterfaceDef.dll into project directory and add as file reference, add just one class, and build:

   public class ImplementingClass : IInterface
   {
       #region IInterface Members
       public string GetString(string key)
       {
           return "hello world";
       }
   
       //public short GetShort(string key)
       //{
       //    return 1;
       //}
       #endregion
   }
   

3. Create a third, console project: ClientCode, copy the two dlls into the project directory, add file references, and add the following code into the Main method:

    IInterface test = new ImplementingClass();
    string s = test.GetString("dummykey");
    Console.WriteLine(s);
    Console.ReadKey();
   

4. Run the code once, the console says "hello world"

5. Uncomment the code in the two dll projects and rebuild - copy the two dlls back into the ClientCode project, rebuild and try running again. TypeLoadException occurs when trying to instantiate the ImplementingClass.

Answer 4

In addition to what the asker's own answer already stated, it may be worth noting the following. The reason this happens is because it is possible for a class to have a method with the same signature as an interface method without implementing that method. The following code illustrates that:

public interface IFoo
{
    void DoFoo();
}

public class Foo : IFoo
{
    public void DoFoo() { Console.WriteLine("This is _not_ the interface method."); }
    void IFoo.DoFoo() { Console.WriteLine("This _is_ the interface method."); }
}

Foo foo = new Foo();
foo.DoFoo();               // This calls the non-interface method
IFoo foo2 = foo;
foo2.DoFoo();              // This calls the interface method