Question

In C# I have a base class and a derived class.

I have a function which has the base class as an input parameter

public void SomeFunction(BaseClass InstanceOfDerivedClass)

Is there a way I can access the properties specific to the derived class, even though it has been passed as a base class? Could I use GetType or Cast or something like that?

I appreciate that the solutions may not be elegant but at the moment the alternative is to repeat this function many times for the different derived classes.

Answer 1

you could do this (bad way):

public void SomeFunction(BaseClass instanceOfDerivedClass)
{
    DerivedClass derived = null;

    if(instanceOfDerivedClass is DerivedClass)
    {
        derived = instanceOfDerivedClass as DerivedClass;
        // Do stuff like :
        int prop = derived.DerivedProperty;
    }
}

Or, as suggested by Eric (good way):

public void SomeFunction(BaseClass instanceOfDerivedClass)
{
    DerivedClass derived = instanceOfDerivedClass as DerivedClass;

    if(derived != null)
    {
        // Do stuff like :
        int prop = derived.DerivedProperty;
    }
}