How can I use interface as a C# generic type constraint?

Question

Is there a way to get the following function declaration?

public bool Foo() where T : interface;

ie. where T is an interface type

Answer 1

You cannot do this in any released version of C#, nor in the upcoming C# 4.0. It's not a C# limitation, either - there's no "interface" constraint in the CLR itself.

Answer 2

I tried to do something similar and used a workaround solution: I thought about implicit and explicit operator on structure: The idea is to wrap the Type in a structure that can be converted into Type implicitly.

Here is such a structure:

public struct InterfaceType { private Type _type;

public InterfaceType(Type type)
{
    CheckType(type);
    _type = type;
}

public static explicit operator Type(InterfaceType value)
{
    return value._type;
}

public static implicit operator InterfaceType(Type type)
{
    return new InterfaceType(type);
}

private static void CheckType(Type type)
{
    if (type == null) throw new NullReferenceException("The type cannot be null");
    if (!type.IsInterface) throw new NotSupportedException(string.Format("The given type {0} is not an interface, thus is not supported", type.Name));
}

}

basic usage:

// OK
InterfaceType type1 = typeof(System.ComponentModel.INotifyPropertyChanged);

// Throws an exception
InterfaceType type2 = typeof(WeakReference);

You have to imagine your own mecanism around this, but an example could be a method taken a InterfaceType in parameter instead of a type

this.MyMethod(typeof(IMyType)) // works
this.MyMethod(typeof(MyType)) // throws exception

A method to override that should returns interface types:

public virtual IEnumerable<InterfaceType> GetInterfaces()

There are maybe things to do with generics also, but I didn't tried

Hope this can help or gives ideas :-)

Answer 3

What you have settled for is the best you can do:

public bool Foo<T>() where T : IBase;

Answer 4

No, actually, if you are thinking class and struct mean classes and structs, you're wrong. class means any reference type (e.g. includes interfaces too) and struct means any value type (e.g. struct, enum).

Answer 5

The closest you can do (except for your base-interface approach) is "where T : class", meaning reference-type. There is no syntax to mean "any interface".

This ("where T : class") is used, for example, in WCF to limit clients to service contracts (interfaces).

Answer 6

I know this is a bit late but for those that are interested you can use a runtime check.

typeof(T).IsInterface