Object Oriented Principles

Table of contents

Read No.	Name of chapter
05	Object Oriented Programming
05	Inheritance
05	Abstract
05	Polymorphism

Object-Oriented programming

C# is an object-oriented programming language. The four basic principles of object-oriented programming are:

• Abstraction Modeling the relevant attributes and interactions of entities as classes to define an abstract representation of a system.
• Encapsulation Hiding the internal state and functionality of an object and only allowing access through a public set of functions.
• Inheritance Ability to create new abstractions based on existing abstractions.
• Polymorphism Ability to implement inherited properties or methods in different ways across multiple abstractions.

Inheritance

Introduction

Inheritance, together with encapsulation and polymorphism, is one of the three primary characteristics of object-oriented programming. Inheritance enables you to create new classes that reuse, extend, and modify the behavior defined in other classes. The class whose members are inherited is called the base class, and the class that inherits those members is called the derived class. A derived class can have only one direct base class. However, inheritance is transitive. If ClassC is derived from ClassB, and ClassB is derived from ClassA, ClassC inherits the members declared in ClassB and ClassA.

When you define a class to derive from another class, the derived class implicitly gains all the members of the base class, except for its constructors and finalizers. The derived class reuses the code in the base class without having to reimplement it. You can add more members in the derived class. The derived class extends the functionality of the base class.

This example shows how WorkItem overrides the virtual method Object.ToString, and how the ChangeRequest class inherits the WorkItem implementation of the method. The first block defines the classes:

// WorkItem implicitly inherits from the Object class.
public class WorkItem
{
    // Static field currentID stores the job ID of the last WorkItem that
    // has been created.
    private static int currentID;

    //Properties.
    protected int ID { get; set; }
    protected string Title { get; set; }
    protected string Description { get; set; }
    protected TimeSpan jobLength { get; set; }

    // Default constructor. If a derived class does not invoke a base-
    // class constructor explicitly, the default constructor is called
    // implicitly.
    public WorkItem()
    {
        ID = 0;
        Title = "Default title";
        Description = "Default description.";
        jobLength = new TimeSpan();
    }

    // Instance constructor that has three parameters.
    public WorkItem(string title, string desc, TimeSpan joblen)
    {
        this.ID = GetNextID();
        this.Title = title;
        this.Description = desc;
        this.jobLength = joblen;
    }

    // Static constructor to initialize the static member, currentID. This
    // constructor is called one time, automatically, before any instance
    // of WorkItem or ChangeRequest is created, or currentID is referenced.
    static WorkItem() => currentID = 0;

    // currentID is a static field. It is incremented each time a new
    // instance of WorkItem is created.
    protected int GetNextID() => ++currentID;

    // Method Update enables you to update the title and job length of an
    // existing WorkItem object.
    public void Update(string title, TimeSpan joblen)
    {
        this.Title = title;
        this.jobLength = joblen;
    }

    // Virtual method override of the ToString method that is inherited
    // from System.Object.
    public override string ToString() =>
        $"{this.ID} - {this.Title}";
}

// ChangeRequest derives from WorkItem and adds a property (originalItemID)
// and two constructors.
public class ChangeRequest : WorkItem
{
    protected int originalItemID { get; set; }

    // Constructors. Because neither constructor calls a base-class
    // constructor explicitly, the default constructor in the base class
    // is called implicitly. The base class must contain a default
    // constructor.

    // Default constructor for the derived class.
    public ChangeRequest() { }

    // Instance constructor that has four parameters.
    public ChangeRequest(string title, string desc, TimeSpan jobLen,
                         int originalID)
    {
        // The following properties and the GetNexID method are inherited
        // from WorkItem.
        this.ID = GetNextID();
        this.Title = title;
        this.Description = desc;
        this.jobLength = jobLen;

        // Property originalItemId is a member of ChangeRequest, but not
        // of WorkItem.
        this.originalItemID = originalID;
    }
}

This next block shows how to use the base and derived classes:

// Create an instance of WorkItem by using the constructor in the
// base class that takes three arguments.
WorkItem item = new WorkItem("Fix Bugs",
                            "Fix all bugs in my code branch",
                            new TimeSpan(3, 4, 0, 0));

// Create an instance of ChangeRequest by using the constructor in
// the derived class that takes four arguments.
ChangeRequest change = new ChangeRequest("Change Base Class Design",
                                        "Add members to the class",
                                        new TimeSpan(4, 0, 0),
                                        1);

// Use the ToString method defined in WorkItem.
Console.WriteLine(item.ToString());

// Use the inherited Update method to change the title of the
// ChangeRequest object.
change.Update("Change the Design of the Base Class",
    new TimeSpan(4, 0, 0));

// ChangeRequest inherits WorkItem's override of ToString.
Console.WriteLine(change.ToString());
/* Output:
    1 - Fix Bugs
    2 - Change the Design of the Base Class
*/

Abstract and virtual methods

When a base class declares a method as virtual, a derived class can override the method with its own implementation. If a base class declares a member as abstract, that method must be overridden in any non-abstract class that directly inherits from that class. If a derived class is itself abstract, it inherits abstract members without implementing them.

Abstract base classes

An abstract class can be used only if a new class is derived from it. An abstract class can contain one or more method signatures that themselves are declared as abstract. These signatures specify the parameters and return value but have no implementation (method body). An abstract class doesn’t have to contain abstract members; however, if a class does contain an abstract member, the class itself must be declared as abstract. Derived classes that aren’t abstract themselves must provide the implementation for any abstract methods from an abstract base class.

Interfaces

An interface is a reference type that defines a set of members. All classes and structs that implement that interface must implement that set of members. An interface may define a default implementation for any or all of these members. A class can implement multiple interfaces even though it can derive from only a single direct base class.

Abstract and Sealed Classes and Class Members

The abstract keyword enables you to create classes and class members that are incomplete and must be implemented in a derived class.

The sealed keyword enables you to prevent the inheritance of a class or certain class members that were previously marked virtual.

Abstract Classes and Class Members

public abstract class A
{
    // Class members here.
}

An abstract class cannot be instantiated. The purpose of an abstract class is to provide a common definition of a base class that multiple derived classes can share.

Abstract classes may also define abstract methods. This is accomplished by adding the keyword abstract before the return type of the method. For example:

public abstract class A
{
    public abstract void DoWork(int i);
}

Abstract methods have no implementation, so the method definition is followed by a semicolon instead of a normal method block.

Derived classes of the abstract class must implement all abstract methods. When an abstract class inherits a virtual method from a base class, the abstract class can override the virtual method with an abstract method. For example:

// compile with: -target:library
public class D
{
    public virtual void DoWork(int i)
    {
        // Original implementation.
    }
}

public abstract class E : D
{
    public abstract override void DoWork(int i);
}

public class F : E
{
    public override void DoWork(int i)
    {
        // New implementation.
    }
}

Sealed Classes and Class Members

public sealed class D
{
    // Class members here.
}

A sealed class cannot be used as a base class. For this reason, it cannot also be an abstract class. Sealed classes prevent derivation. Because they can never be used as a base class, some run-time optimizations can make calling sealed class members slightly faster.

Polymorphism

Polymorphism has two distinct aspects:

• At run time, objects of a derived class may be treated as objects of a base class in places such as method parameters and collections or arrays. When this polymorphism occurs, the object’s declared type is no longer identical to its run-time type.

• Base classes may define and implement virtual methods, and derived classes can override them, which means they provide their own definition and implementation. At run-time, when client code calls the method, the CLR looks up the run-time type of the object, and invokes that override of the virtual method. In your source code you can call a method on a base class, and cause a derived class’s version of the method to be executed.

Polymorphism overview

When a derived class inherits from a base class, it gains all the methods, fields, properties, and events of the base class. The designer of the derived class has different choices for the behavior of virtual methods:

• The derived class may override virtual members in the base class, defining new behavior.
• The derived class inherit the closest base class method without overriding it, preserving the existing behavior but enabling further derived classes to override the method.
• The derived class may define new non-virtual implementation of those members that hide the base class implementations.

A derived class can override a base class member only if the base class member is declared as virtual or abstract. The derived member must use the override keyword to explicitly indicate that the method is intended to participate in virtual invocation. The following code provides an example:

public class BaseClass
{
    public virtual void DoWork() { }
    public virtual int WorkProperty
    {
        get { return 0; }
    }
}
public class DerivedClass : BaseClass
{
    public override void DoWork() { }
    public override int WorkProperty
    {
        get { return 0; }
    }
}

Hide base class members with new members

If you want your derived class to have a member with the same name as a member in a base class, you can use the new keyword to hide the base class member. The new keyword is put before the return type of a class member that is being replaced. The following code provides an example:

public class BaseClass
{
    public void DoWork() { WorkField++; }
    public int WorkField;
    public int WorkProperty
    {
        get { return 0; }
    }
}

public class DerivedClass : BaseClass
{
    public new void DoWork() { WorkField++; }
    public new int WorkField;
    public new int WorkProperty
    {
        get { return 0; }
    }
}

Prevent derived classes from overriding virtual members

Virtual members remain virtual, regardless of how many classes have been declared between the virtual member and the class that originally declared it. If class A declares a virtual member, and class B derives from A, and class C derives from B, class C inherits the virtual member, and may override it, regardless of whether class B declared an override for that member. The following code provides an example:

public class A
{
    public virtual void DoWork() { }
}
public class B : A
{
    public override void DoWork() { }
}

A derived class can stop virtual inheritance by declaring an override as sealed. Stopping inheritance requires putting the sealed keyword before the override keyword in the class member declaration. The following code provides an example:

public class C : B
{
    public sealed override void DoWork() { }
}

In the previous example, the method DoWork is no longer virtual to any class derived from C. It’s still virtual for instances of C, even if they’re cast to type B or type A. Sealed methods can be replaced by derived classes by using the new keyword, as the following example shows:

public class D : C
{
    public new void DoWork() { }
}

In this case, if DoWork is called on D using a variable of type D, the new DoWork is called. If a variable of type C, B, or A is used to access an instance of D, a call to DoWork will follow the rules of virtual inheritance, routing those calls to the implementation of DoWork on class C.

Access base class virtual members from derived classes

A derived class that has replaced or overridden a method or property can still access the method or property on the base class using the base keyword. The following code provides an example:

public class Base
{
    public virtual void DoWork() {/*...*/ }
}
public class Derived : Base
{
    public override void DoWork()
    {
        //Perform Derived's work here
        //...
        // Call DoWork on base class
        base.DoWork();
    }
}