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Language: .NET
Expertise: Beginner

Apr 29, 2008

C# seems to fail in an advanced use of polymorphism, as demonstrated by the following code:

class AReturn {}
class BReturn : AReturn {}

class A
{
   public virtual AReturn GetReturn() {...}
}

class B
{
   public override BReturn GetReturn() {...}
}

The compiler complains that, in class B, GetReturn is not returning an AReturn even though BReturn inherits from AReturn. Here's a simple workaround for this situation:

class AReturn {}
class BReturn : AReturn {}

class A
{
   public AReturn GetReturn() { return InternalGetReturn(); }
   protected virtual AReturn InternalGetReturn() {...}
}

class B
{
   public new BReturn GetReturn() { return
 (BReturn)InternalGetReturn();
}
   protected override AReturn InternalGetReturn() {...}
}

Unfortunately, you're required to use an explicit cast—but this should be safe as long as class B's InternalGetReturn and those of any of its subclasses return an object that is a BReturn.