GetProperty reflection results in "Ambiguous match found" on new property

Valamas picture Valamas · Jul 12, 2012 · Viewed 35.9k times · Source

How can I get my property? Currently an error is occuring of Ambiguous match found, see the comment line in code.

public class MyBaseEntity
{
    public MyBaseEntity MyEntity { get; set; }
}

public class MyDerivedEntity : MyBaseEntity
{
    public new MyDerivedEntity MyEntity { get; set; }
}

private static void Main(string[] args)
{
    MyDerivedEntity myDE = new MyDerivedEntity();

    PropertyInfo propInfoSrcObj = myDE.GetType().GetProperty("MyEntity");
    //-- ERROR: Ambiguous match found
}

Answer

Kevin Aenmey picture Kevin Aenmey · Jul 12, 2012

Type.GetProperty

Situations in which AmbiguousMatchException occurs ...

...derived type declares a property that hides an inherited property with the same name, by using the new modifier

If you run the following

var properties = myDE.GetType().GetProperties().Where(p => p.Name == "MyEntity");

you will see that two PropertyInfo objects are returned. One for MyBaseEntity and one for MyDerivedEntity. That is why you are receiving the Ambiguous match found error.

You can get the PropertyInfo for MyDerivedEntity like this:

PropertyInfo propInfoSrcObj = myDE.GetType().GetProperties().Single(p => 
    p.Name == "MyEntity" && p.PropertyType == typeof(MyDerivedEntity));