Question

Is there any way to implement an interface explicitly using an automatic property? For instance, consider this code:

namespace AutoProperties
{
    interface IMyInterface
    {
        bool MyBoolOnlyGet { get; }
    }

    class MyClass : IMyInterface
    {
        static void Main(){}

        public bool MyBoolOnlyGet { get; private set; } // line 1
        //bool IMyInterface.MyBoolOnlyGet { get; private set; } // line 2
    }
}

This code compiles. However, if you replace line 1 with line 2 it does not compile.

(It’s not that I need to get line 2 working – I’m just curious.)

Answer 1

Indeed, that particular arrangement (explicit implementation of a get-only interface property by an automatically implemented property) isn’t supported by the language. So either do it manually (with a field), or write a private auto-implemented prop, and proxy to it. But to be honest, by the time you’ve done that you might as well have used a field…

private bool MyBool { get;set;}
bool IMyInterface.MyBoolOnlyGet { get {return MyBool;} }

or:

private bool myBool;
bool IMyInterface.MyBoolOnlyGet { get {return myBool;} }