Question

I’m just wondering if it is possible..

I have a base class, with a variable called Level. I then derive a class from it, but here Level should be called Points.

Is there any way to rename the Level variable in the derived class?

Edit – Excuse me for calling a property a variable. I’m quite new to programming, and especially to classes (Which our teacher doesn’t teach us for some reason)

Answer 1

The closest you could get with inheritance would be:

class BaseClass
{
  protected int Level { get; set; }
}

class SubClass : BaseClass
{
  public int Points { get { return Level; } set { Level = value; } }
}

But that doesn’t actually expose BaseClass.Level, since a protected property is only visible to subclasses.

As @Jason explains, a subclass can’t obscure the public interface of its base class. If you really wanted to do that, you could encapsulate the base in a new object that exposes its properties:

class A
{
   public Foo { get; set; }
   public Bar { get; set; }
   public Level { get; set;}
}

class B
{
  private A _internalA;

  public Foo { get { return _internalA.Foo; }  set { _internalA.Foo = value; } }
  public Bar { get { return _internalA.Bar; }  set { _internalA.Bar= value; } }
  public Points { get { return _internalA.Level; }  set { _internalA.Level = value; } }
}

This is typically referred to as composition: B is composed of A, rather than inheriting from it.