Question

I have a generic interface:

public interface IUnauthorizedRequestRespondable<out T> where T:class 
{
    T GetResponseForUnauthorizedRequest();
}  

(I’m not sure why Resharper recommended T is “out”, but that’s not the question).
In my scenario, the object returned by GetResponseForUnauthorizedRequest is always of the type that implements the interface.

So all the interface’s implementations look like:

public class SignInReturnedObject : IUnauthorizedRequestRespondable<SignInReturnedObject>  

(class name and the type in brackets are always the same).
Which seems a bit awkward – isn’t there a neater way to tell the compiler that the interface’s method returns the type it’s a part of?

Thanks.

Answer 1

If the only way you want to use that template is in that manner, I would use:

public interface IUnauthorizedRequestRespondable<T> where T:IUnauthorizedRequestRespondable<T>
{
    T GetResponseForUnauthorizedRequest();
}

This has the advantage of guaranteeing it isn’t used in any other way.

The class declaration won’t change, but I don’t see anything as awkward in this myself. Considering that you are defining a relationship between the class and itself, any more concise form might be inadvisable.