Question

The C# spec states that an argument type cannot be both covariant and contravariant at the same time.

This is apparent when creating a covariant or contravariant interface you decorate your type parameters with “out” or “in” respectively. There is not option that allows both at the same time (“outin”).

Is this limitation simply a language specific constraint or are there deeper, more fundamental reasons based in category theory that would make you not want your type to be both covariant and contravariant?

Edit:

My understanding was that arrays were actually both covariant and contravariant.

public class Pet{}
public class Cat : Pet{}
public class Siamese : Cat{}
Cat[] cats = new Cat[10];
Pet[] pets = new Pet[10];
Siamese[] siameseCats = new Siamese[10];

//Cat array is covariant
pets = cats; 
//Cat array is also contravariant since it accepts conversions from wider types
cats = siameseCats; 

Answer 1

As others have said, it is logically inconsistent for a generic type to be both covariant and contravariant. There are some excellent answers here so far, but let me add two more.

First off, read my article on the subject of variance “validity”:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ericlippert/archive/2009/12/03/exact-rules-for-variance-validity.aspx

By definition, if a type is “covariantly valid” then it is not usable in a contravariant way. If it is “contravariantly valid” then it is not usable in a covariant way. Something that is both covariantly valid and contravariantly valid is not usable in either a covariant or contravariant way. That is, it is invariant. So, there is the union of covariant and contravariant: their union is invariant.

Second, let’s suppose for a moment that you got your wish and that there was a type annotation that worked the way I think you want:

interface IBurger<in and out T> {}

Suppose you have an IBurger<string>. Because it is covariant, that is convertible to IBurger<object>. Because it is contravariant, that is in turn convertible to IBurger<Exception>, even though “string” and “Exception” have nothing whatsoever in common. Basically “in and out” means that IBurger<T1> is convertible to any type IBurger<T2> for any two reference types T1 and T2. How is that useful? What would you do with such a feature? Suppose you have an IBurger<Exception>, but the object is actually an IBurger<string>. What could you do with that, that both takes advantage of the fact that the type argument is Exception, and allows that type argument to be a complete lie, because the “real” type argument is an utterly unrelated type?

To answer your follow-up question: implicit reference type conversions involving arrays are covariant; they are not contravariant. Can you explain why you incorrectly believe them to be contravariant?