Question

I was of the opinion that virtualization doesnt work in the super class constructor as per the design of OOP. For example, consider the following C# code.

using System; namespace Problem {     public class BaseClass      {         public BaseClass()          {             Console.WriteLine('Hello, World!');             this.PrintRandom();         }         public virtual void PrintRandom()          {             Console.WriteLine('0');         }     }      public class Descendent : BaseClass      {         private Random randomValue;         public Descendent()          {             Console.WriteLine('Bonjour, Monde!');             randomValue = new Random();         }         public override void PrintRandom()          {             Console.WriteLine(randomValue.NextDouble().ToString());         }          public static void Main()          {             Descendent obj = new Descendent();             obj.PrintRandom();             Console.ReadLine();         }     } } 

This code breaks because when the object of Descendent is made, it calls the base class constructor and we have a virtual method call in Base Class constructor which in turn calls the Derived class’s method and hence, it crashes since randomValue is not intialized by that time.

A similar code works in C++ because the call to PrintRandom is not routed to the derived class since IMO, the order in C++ is something like:

1. call for base class constructor
2. Update V – Table for this class
3. call the constructor code

My Question is that firstly whether I am right that as per OOP principles, virtualization shouldn’t/doesn’t work in the super class constructor and secondly if I am right, then why the behavior is different in all .NET languages ( I have tested it with C#, VB.NET and MC++)

Answer 1

In native C++, the program works as expected: you get the call to the base class version of the virtual function within the base class constructor. At the time of the constructor call, only the base class and its virtual functions exist, so you get the lowest-level version of the virtual function defined at the time. This does not imply that virtualization cannot be used, you just won’t get the subclass versions of virtual methods in the constructors of base classes (which is why it’s not recommended).

Obviously, as you can see, managed code works differently, because (iirc) the entire object is built before the constructors are called, and thus you get the subclass virtual function before the subclass constructor. This is a documented difference between the behaviors of the languages, but should be consistent across .NET languages (since they all compile to the same IL).