I cant access the property of the base class?

Question

I have a simple class here

class Leader : Inhabitants
{

    public int ProducedWorth { get; set; }
    public Leader(string name, int age, string profession, int producedWorth)
    {
        InhabitantID = InhabitantCount;
        Name = name;
        Age = age;
        Profession = profession;
        ProducedWorth = producedWorth;
    }
    public int GetProducedWorth()
    {
        return ProducedWorth;
    }
}

which inherits from a Inhabitant class

 class Inhabitants
{
    static protected int InhabitantCount;
    public Inhabitants()
    {
        InhabitantCount++;
    }
    public int InhabitantID { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int Age { get; set; }
    public string Profession { get; set; }
}

Now when I create new instances of the class it seems to work perfectly fine, but when I try to access to the producedWorth property that is only on the base class i get the error that the inherited class does not have said property?

var leadA = new Leader("Julien", 33, "Stone pit overseer", 6540)
//leadA.Name is accessible
//leadA.producedWorth is not accessible

program.cs

Because it is `ProducedWorth` (`P` is uppercase). Simple typo :) — Salah Akbari, Aug 04 '18 at 13:26
`leaders` is a list of `Inhabitants` not of `Leader`. If you want to access `Leader` properties the list should be of `Leader`s — Camilo Terevinto, Aug 04 '18 at 13:27
@S.Akbari I don't think that's the problem, look at the image :) — Camilo Terevinto, Aug 04 '18 at 13:27
@CamiloTerevinto It might. I've judged based on this line `leadA.producedWorth is not accessible` which `leadA` is a new instance of `Leader`. — Salah Akbari, Aug 04 '18 at 13:30
Possible duplicate of [Accessing a property of derived class from the base class in C#](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/210601/accessing-a-property-of-derived-class-from-the-base-class-in-c-sharp) — Camilo Terevinto, Aug 04 '18 at 13:37
@AdiBradfield Too many duplicates already, I think the one flagged should be clear enough — Camilo Terevinto, Aug 04 '18 at 13:37

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 04 '18 at 13:38

2

The list is a list of Inhabitants, you can only access properties of Inhabitants, the reason is that the compiler does not know that the actual object in the list is of type Leader, though you can tell him by casting to Leader:

((Leader)leadA).ProducedWorth

The line above should compile.

answered Aug 04 '18 at 13:38

Dr.Haimovitz

1,568
12
16

"The list is a list of Inhabitants" that was the problem, thank you! – Mago99 Aug 04 '18 at 13:53

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 04 '18 at 13:55

0

Generic lists are covariant which is why you are allowed to add Leaders to a list of Inhabitants.

Implicit conversions are allowed, you just have to not use var. Do this:

foreach(Leader ldr in leaders)
{
   // ....
}

answered Aug 04 '18 at 13:55

Crowcoder

11,250
3
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45

Just to make it clear, this syntax does not filter Leaders out of that list, but casts every item. So that will fail if there happens to be a plain Inhabitant there – Hans Keﬆing Aug 04 '18 at 14:48
@HansKeﬆing yes, but the accepted answer would also fail the same way. – Crowcoder Aug 04 '18 at 14:52

score -2 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 04 '18 at 13:36

-2

In the code you're executing you're creating a list of type Inhabitants which does not possess the property ProducedWorth. You need to add that property to the Inhabitants class if you want to be able to access it that way.

answered Aug 04 '18 at 13:36

Ill Storms

1

2

"You need to add that property to the Inhabitants class" no you dont, you can cast to Leader instead.. – Dr.Haimovitz Aug 04 '18 at 13:41

I cant access the property of the base class?

3 Answers3