How to have abstract and overriding constants in C#?

c# polymorphism constants
Chris picture Chris · Mar 9, 2010 · Viewed 20.1k times · Source

My code below won't compile. What am i doing wrong? I'm basically trying to have a public constant that is overridden in the base class.

public abstract class MyBaseClass
{
  public abstract const string bank = "???";
}

public class SomeBankClass : MyBaseClass
{
  public override const string bank = "Some Bank";
}

Thanks as always for being so helpful!

Answer

Pierre-Alain Vigeant picture Pierre-Alain Vigeant · Mar 9, 2010

If your constant is describing your object, then it should be a property. A constant, by its name, should not change and was designed to be unaffected by polymorphism. The same apply for static variable.

You can create an abstract property (or virtual if you want a default value) in your base class:

public abstract string Bank { get; }

Then override with:

public override string Bank { get { return "Some bank"; } }

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