Question

I stumbled across this odd case yesterday, where t as D returns a non-null value, but (D)t causes a compiler error.

Since I was in a hurry I just used t as D and carried on, but I am curious about why the cast is invalid, as t really is a D. Can anyone shed some light on why the compiler doesn’t like the cast?

class Program
{
    public class B<T> where T : B<T> { }

    public class D : B<D> { public void M() { Console.Out.WriteLine("D.M called."); } }

    static void Main() { M(new D()); }

    public static void M<T>(T t) where T : B<T>
    {
        // Works as expected: prints "D.M called."
        var d = t as D;
        if (d != null)
            d.M();

        // Compiler error: "Cannot cast expression of type 'T' to type 'D'."
        // even though t really is a D!
        if (t is D)
            ((D)t).M();
    }
}

EDIT: Playing around, I think this is a clearer example. In both cases t is constrained to be a B and is maybe a D. But the case with the generic won’t compile. Does the C# just ignore the generic constraint when determining if the cast is legal? Even if it does ignore it, t could still be a D; so why is this a compile time error instead of a runtime exception?

class Program2
{
    public class B { }

    public class D : B { public void M() { } }

    static void Main()
    {
        M(new D());
    }

    public static void M(B t)
    {
        // Works fine!
        if (t is D)
            ((D)t).M();
    }

    public static void M<T>(T t) where T : B
    {
        // Compile error!
        if (t is D)
            ((D)t).M();
    }
}

Answer 1

In your second example you can change

((D)t).M();

to

((D)((B)t)).M();

You can cast from B to D, but you can’t necessarily cast from “something that is a B” to D. “Something that is a B” could be an A, for example, if A : B.

The compiler error comes about when you are potentially jumping from child to child in the hierarchy. You can cast up and down the hierarchy, but you can’t cast across it.

((D)t).M();       // potentially across, if t is an A
((D)((B)t)).M();  // first up the hierarchy, then back down

Notice also that you might still get a runtime error with ((D)((B)t)).M(); if t is not actually a D. (your is check should prevent this though.)

(Also notice that in neither case is the compiler taking into account the if (t is D) check.)

A last example:

class Base { }
class A : Base { }
class C : Base { }

...
A a = new A();
C c1 = (C)a;         // compiler error
C c2 = (C)((Base)a); // no compiler error, but a runtime error (and a resharper warning)

// the same is true for 'as'
C c3 = a as C;           // compiler error
C c4 = (a as Base) as C; // no compiler error, but always evaluates to null (and a resharper warning)