Question

In C#, using reflection, is it possible to define method in the base class that returns its own name (in the form of a string) and have subclasses inherit this behavior in a polymorphic way?

For example:

public class Base
{
    public string getClassName()
    {
        //using reflection, but I don't want to have to type the word "Base" here.
        //in other words, DO NOT WANT  get { return typeof(Base).FullName; }
        return className; //which is the string "Base"
    }
}

public class Subclass : Base
{
    //inherits getClassName(), do not want to override
}

Subclass subclass = new Subclass();
string className = subclass.getClassName(); //className should be assigned "Subclass"  

Answer 1

public class Base
{
    public string getClassName()
    {
        return this.GetType().Name;
    }
}

actually, you don't need to create a method getClassName() just to get the type-name. You can call GetType() on any .Net object and you’ll get the meta information of the Type.

You can also do it like this,

public class Base
{

}

public class Subclass : Base
{

}

//In your client-code
Subclass subclass = new Subclass();
string className = subclass.GetType().Name;

EDIT

Moreover, should you really need to define getClassName() in any case, I’d strongly suggest to make it a property [as per .net framework design guide-lines] since the behavior of getClassName() is not dynamic and it will always return the same value every-time you call it.

public class Base
{
    public string ClassName
    {
        get
        {
            return this.GetType().Name;
        }
    }
}

EDIT2

Optimized version After reading comment from Chris.

public class Base
{
    private string className;
    public string ClassName
    {
        get
        {
            if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(className))
                className = this.GetType().Name;
            return className;
        }
    }
}