C# Language Tutorial => Inheritance Anti-patterns

Example

Improper Inheritance

Lets say there are 2 classes class Foo and Bar. Foo has two features Do1 and Do2. Bar needs to use Do1 from Foo, but it doesn't need Do2 or needs feature that is equivalent to Do2 but does something completely different.

Bad way: make Do2() on Foo virtual then override it in Bar or just throw Exception in Bar for Do2()

public class Bar : Foo
{
    public override void Do2()
    {
        //Does something completely different that you would expect Foo to do
        //or simply throws new Exception 
    }
}

Good way

Take out Do1() from Foo and put it into new class Baz then inherit both Foo and Bar from Baz and implement Do2() separately

public class Baz
{
    public void Do1()
    {
        // magic
    }
}

public class Foo : Baz
{
    public void Do2()
    {
        // foo way
    }
}

public class Bar : Baz
{
    public void Do2()
    {
        // bar way or not have Do2 at all
    }
}

Now why first example is bad and second is good: When developer nr2 has to do a change in Foo, chances are he will break implementation of Bar because Bar is now inseparable from Foo. When doing it by latter example Foo and Bar commonalty has been moved to Baz and they do not affect each other (like the shouldn't).

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Fastest Entity Framework Extensions

Example

Improper Inheritance

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C# Language

C# Language Inheritance Inheritance Anti-patterns

Fastest Entity Framework Extensions

Example

Improper Inheritance

Got any C# Language Question?