Why C# Doesnt Support Multiple Inheritance ?

Manikavelu Velayutham

Why C# Doesnt Support Multiple Inheritance and why it requires Interface to achieve that ?
If possible need some examples with explanation.

4 Replies

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Mahesh Chand16y ago
MI was not added to C# due to performance reasons. Also, in real word, MI is used rarely. But you can still implement MI in C#. Read this article:
Multiple Inheritance in C#
Felipe Ramos16y ago
I am sure you can find more info on the inner workings but I know that c++ require explicit qualification in those cases.

class A { int ii; }
class B { int ii; }
class C : A, B { }
would look like
C* pc;
pc->A::ii;
pc->B::ii;
Manikavelu Velayutham16y ago
Yes, I read this example in MSDN.
Just want to know How C++ supports Multiple Inheritance and how they handle this Diamond Problem and why not C# in that way ?
Felipe Ramos16y ago
C# is not the only language that doesn't support multiple inheritance, you will have that limitation in many modern object oriented languages like Java. Microsoft states that it allows for ambiguity when it comes time to find the correct implementation of virtual methods. In their example they create a Dog class, a Hound, and Puppy class that inherit from dog and both override the Dog class bark virtual function. The say the issue comes when creating a class that inherits from Hound and Puppy, how would you determine what would happen when you call the bark function. The also go into a little more detail on why having all objects in .net inherit from System.Object and important thing when it comes to the objects to be process by the garbage collector.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms973861.aspx