Question

Is it possible in C# to pass a generic to an overloaded method, and get it to resolve to a non-generic version of the method? For example:

class Program {
    static void Main(string[] args) {
        A a = new A();

        Process(a);
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    static void Process<T>(T item) {
        Writer(item);
    }

    // Writer methods...

    static void Writer<T>(T item) {
        Console.WriteLine("Type: " + item.GetType());
        Console.WriteLine("You lose");
    }

    static void Writer(A item) {
        item.Write();
    }
}   

class A {
    public void Write() {
        Console.WriteLine("You found me!");
    }
}

This code outputs:

Type: Foo.A

You lose

And I’d like to see:

You found me!

Is there any way of doing this, or something similar? I’m using C# 4.

Answer 1

You can use dynamic to defer overload resolution until runtime:

static void Process<T>(T item)
{
    dynamic d = item;
    Writer(d);
}