Question

I am getting confused with the scenario of 2 classes implementing the same interface and Dependency Injection.

public interface ISomething
{
  void DoSomething();
}

public class SomethingA : ISomething
{
  public void DoSomething()
  {

  }
}

public class SomethingAB : ISomething
{
  public void DoSomething()
  {

  }
}

public class Different
{
  private ISomething ThisSomething;

  public Different(ISomething Something)
  {  
    ThisSomething = Something;
  }
}

I have seen online examples say that this is valid but you would only use one class at a time. So if the app is running at SiteA you tell your IOC to use SomethingA but if its at SiteB you tell it to use SomethingAB.

Is it considered bad practice therefore to have one app that has 2 classes that implement 1 interface and for it to try to use both classes? If its not how do you tell the IOC which class to use in the relevant circumstance?

UPDATE: To explain it better I will use Ninject’s example:

public class Samurai 
{
    private IWeapon Weapon;

    public Samurai(IWeapon weapon) 
    {
        this.Weapon = weapon;
    }
}

public class Sword : IWeapon
{
...
}

public class Gun : IWeapon
{
...
}

public class WarriorModule : NinjectModule
{
    public override void Load() 
    {
        this.Bind<IWeapon>().To<Sword>();
        this.Bind<IWeapon>().To<Gun>();  //Just an example
    }
}

So now you have 2 classes that use IWeapon. Depending on something or a context in your app you want Samurai to have a Sword sometimes or a Gun at other points. How do you make this happen? How do you handle that “if” scenario??

Answer 1

I don’t think that this is a bad practice in the general case. There are situations where you could need different implementations of the same interface inside the same application and based on the context use one or another implementation

As far as how to configure your DI to enable this scenario, well, it will depend on your DI of course 🙂 Some might not support it, others might not, others might partially support it, etc..

For example with Ninject, you could have the following classes:

public interface ISomething
{
}

public class SomethingA : ISomething
{
}

public class SomethingB : ISomething
{
}

public class Foo
{
    public Foo(ISomething something)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(something);
    }
}

public class Bar
{
    public Bar(ISomething something)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(something);
    }
}

and then use named bindings when configuring the kernel:

// We create the kernel that will be used to provide instances when required
var kernel = new StandardKernel();

// Declare 2 named implementations of the same interface
kernel.Bind<ISomething>().To<SomethingA>().Named("somethingA");
kernel.Bind<ISomething>().To<SomethingB>().Named("somethingB");

// inject SomethingA into Foo's constructor
kernel.Bind<Foo>().ToSelf().WithConstructorArgument(
    "something", ctx => ctx.Kernel.Get<ISomething>("somethingA")
);

// inject SomethingB into Bar's constructor
kernel.Bind<Bar>().ToSelf().WithConstructorArgument(
    "something", ctx => ctx.Kernel.Get<ISomething>("somethingB")
);

Now when you request an instance of Foo it will inject SomethingA into it its constructor and when you request an instance of Bar it will inject SomethingB into it:

var foo = kernel.Get<Foo>();
var bar = kernel.Get<Bar>();