Question

Is it possible to pass in an object reference to a method signature for classes that share the same base class? i.e., simplified:

public class ClassA : System.Web.UI.Control 
public class ClassB : System.Web.UI.Control

In Page:

private void SetCurrentView(ref Control ctrl)
{
  ctrl.Visible = true;
}

protected void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
  aClass = new ClassA();
  bClass = new ClassB();
  SetCurrentView(ref aClass);
  SetCurrentView(ref bClass);
}

Obviously, as is, this does not work, and casting it in the method call would not be an assignable reference. Thoughts?

Answer 1

No, but you do not need ref here anyway.

To set the visibility, the following does exactly what you need:

private void SetCurrentView(Control ctrl)
{
  ctrl.Visible = true;
}