Calling the base constructor in C#

lomaxx picture lomaxx · Aug 15, 2008 · Viewed 1.1M times · Source

If I inherit from a base class and want to pass something from the constructor of the inherited class to the constructor of the base class, how do I do that?

For example, if I inherit from the Exception class I want to do something like this:

class MyExceptionClass : Exception
{
     public MyExceptionClass(string message, string extraInfo)
     {
         //This is where it's all falling apart
         base(message);
     }
}

Basically what I want is to be able to pass the string message to the base Exception class.

Answer

Jon Limjap picture Jon Limjap · Aug 15, 2008

Modify your constructor to the following so that it calls the base class constructor properly:

public class MyExceptionClass : Exception
{
    public MyExceptionClass(string message, string extrainfo) : base(message)
    {
        //other stuff here
    }
}

Note that a constructor is not something that you can call anytime within a method. That's the reason you're getting errors in your call in the constructor body.