Question

I’m not sure it’s really a “polymorphism” question but anyway…
So I have an abstract class and 2 other classes that inherit from it.

Some code from the base class have a variable that would be different between classes that extends the base class.

What’s the best way to do that? Override a “get” method? Change the architecture a little to call a function from the base classe to the extended class that would pass the value…

Here’s an example (it won’t compile, just a little example on how I did it) :

public abstract class BaseAbstract class {

  ... some code ....

  // Here "listName" would change depending on the extending class
  protected List<Items> getAllItems(String listName) {

    Web.getList(listName);

    ... some code ...

  }

  protected abstract List<Items> getAllItems();

}

public class NewClass : BaseAbstract {
 protected override void getAllItems() {
    return getAllItems("ListNameOfNewClass");
 }
}

That’s how I did it, but it doesn’t feel really clear and easy to maintain IMO.

Any idea or comment welcome!

Answer 1

I’d probably opt for something like this:

public abstract class Base
{
    protected abstract string ListName { get; }
    public List<Item> GetItems()
    {
        return Web.GetList(ListName);
    }
}

public class Child : Base
{
    protected override string ListName
    {
        get { return "MyListName"; }
    }
}