Question

Is it possible to have an anonymous type implement an interface?

I’ve got a piece of code that I would like to work, but don’t know how to do this.

I’ve had a couple of answers that either say no, or create a class that implements the interface construct new instances of that. This isn’t really ideal, but I’m wondering if there is a mechanism to create a thin dynamic class on top of an interface which would make this simple.

public interface DummyInterface {     string A { get; }     string B { get; } }  public class DummySource {     public string A { get; set; }     public string C { get; set; }     public string D { get; set; } }  public class Test {     public void WillThisWork()     {         var source = new DummySource[0];         var values = from value in source                      select new                      {                          A = value.A,                          B = value.C + '_' + value.D                      };          DoSomethingWithDummyInterface(values);      }      public void DoSomethingWithDummyInterface(IEnumerable<DummyInterface> values)     {         foreach (var value in values)         {             Console.WriteLine('A = '{0}', B = '{1}'', value.A, value.B);         }     } } 

I’ve found an article Dynamic interface wrapping that describes one approach. Is this the best way of doing this?

Answer 1

No, anonymous types cannot implement an interface. From the C# programming guide:

Anonymous types are class types that consist of one or more public read-only properties. No other kinds of class members such as methods or events are allowed. An anonymous type cannot be cast to any interface or type except for object.