CODEWITHSUNDEEP
.netstandardsapi-design
Phil
Phil

Reputation: 6679

Is it better to use a custom interface or well-known standard interface in an API?

I have a simple interface:

public interface IReadOnlyList<T> : IEnumerable<T>
{
    T this[int index] { get; }
    int Count { get; }
}

Users of my API will be forced to use this interface rather than ones they commonly know like IList or IEnumerable. I prefer this over IList because it only exposes members which can be used. I don't want all that IsReadOnly Add() Remove() Insert() unused junk polluting my API. And I prefer this over IEnumerable because my users will need access to an index and count. Is this sound reasoning, or should I just be using the more familiar IList? Why?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 44

Answers (1)

exacerbatedexpert
exacerbatedexpert

Reputation: 818

That would be a better solution than implementing IList if your type would not actually implement all the members if IList. You could implement IList and throw NotImplementedException but then you'd be violating Liskov.

Upvotes: 1

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