Question

Let me start with the definitions of the objects with which I am working and then I’ll do my best to explain what I’m after:

class CacheItem<T> where T : EntityBase

class CacheCollection : List<CacheItem<EntityBase>>

OK, so my generic collection, CacheCollection should be a list of CacheItems which I can manipulate according to various business rules. One thing I’d like to ensure, howerver, is that each CacheCollection I instanciate only works for a single type of EntityBase. For instance, I have two classes inheriting from EntityBase; Case and Client. I’d like each CacheCollection to handle only one of those types and not mix them.

What changes can/should I make to accomodate this design requirement?

Answer 1

You could always make CacheCollection a generic type itself and then pass that up the inheritance tree to CacheItem:

class CacheCollection<T> : List<CacheItem<T>> where T : EntityBase