Question

I understand overriding a method/function redefines its implementation in the derived class from its implementation in the base class.

Now what confuses me, is if I override a class in ASP.NET such as CreateChildControls() (I picked it randomly for no particular reason), VS2008 auto generates:

protected override void CreateChildControls()
{
   base.CreateChildControls();
}

Good enough, the default implementation just calls the base class’ CreateChildControls().

So if I want to run some code, since I do not know how base.CreateChildControls(), should I do this:

protected override void CreateChildControls()
{
   /*My Code Here*/                    
   base.CreateChildControls();
}

or, ignore what base.CreateChildControls() altogether and just do

protected override void CreateChildControls()
{
   /*My Code Here*/                    
}

Answer 1

That’s up to you. Generally, you want to call the base class method because it might do a lot of stuff you’re not privy to (especially in a class you don’t control .. get it? Control.) But, if you are very confident you don’t need (or want) the base class “stuff” to happen, you can remove the call.