Extension method: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 00:43, 22 January 2007

Revision as of 00:43, 22 January 2007

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One of the features of [[C-Sharp|C# 3.0]]

==Problem==

Normally, in a situation where it is necessary to add more functionality to a class - for instance a new method - it would simply be a matter of modifying the class' source code and recompiling the binaries with these new changes to make this effect. However, in some cases, especially when it comes to classes that are build-in into the .NET-framework or reside in third-party [[assemblies|.NET_assembly|assemblies]], the programmer does not have access to the source code and is thus unable to change the behavior of the class directly. Heretofore, the programmer has been left with two other less intuitive options:

# The first option is to inherit the class and then add the functionality.

# The second option is to make a new, separate class and add a static method that takes an object of the class type and return a new object with the modification of choice.