CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#genericsinterfaceconstraints
Amir Popovich
Amir Popovich

Reputation: 29836

Why does a Generic<T> method with a "where T : class" constraint accept an interface

I have this interface:

public interface ITestInterface
{
    int TestInt { get; set; }
}

and this generic method (with a T : class constraint):

public void Test<T>() where T : class
{
    // DoSomething
}

and this call:

Test<ITestInterface>();

and everything compiles and runs while an interface is not a class (or is it?).

Why does this happen?

I first saw this on my WCF proxy class:

public partial class TestServiceClient:
     System.ServiceModel.ClientBase<TestNamespace.ITestService>, TestNamespace.ITestService

where ClientBase<T> has this definition:

public abstract class ClientBase<TChannel> : 
     ICommunicationObject, IDisposable where TChannel : class

Upvotes: 13

Views: 2157

Answers (1)

Jakub Lortz
Jakub Lortz

Reputation: 14896

The class constraint means that the type must be a reference type, not necessarily a class.

From C# language specification:

The reference type constraint specifies that a type argument used for the type parameter must be a reference type. All class types, interface types, delegate types, array types, and type parameters known to be a reference type (as defined below) satisfy this constraint.

Basically, it means that the type cannot be a value type.

Value types can implement interfaces too, but casting a value type to an interface causes the value to be boxed

IComparable i = 0;

Now i stores a reference to a boxed 0.

Upvotes: 9

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