why multiple inheritance is not possible directly in c#?

Sreekanth Reddy

13y2kVisual Basic .NET

6 Replies

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Sanjeeb Lenka13y ago
Accepted answer
When we use the Multiple inherutance,we use more than one
class.Suppose class A and class B are base classes and
class c is is multiple inherting it.it may be possible that
this function with same name and same signature can present
in both class A and Class B .At this time how the compiler
will know which function it should take wherether from
class A or class B.

So Multiple inheritance won't work.
To avoid this problem we use Interface..... it means in
interface we just declare a function and in the derived
class we give the definition as per the requirement...means
function should be abstract ... and in interface all funcion
[method] should abstract
Er Sharma11y ago
Multiple Inheritance have multiple base classes like if we have two Base Classes A and B and Class C is multiple inheriting. then Its Vey diifcult for the CLR to to take the which function if both the base class may have the function with same name and signature. SO in order to overcome to this problem C# introduces a new feature called Interface. Interface supports multiple inheritance
Vulpes13y ago
There's further confirmation of the reasons for not supporting multiple inheritance in this conversation with former C# design team member, Eric Gunnerson:

http://www.artima.com/intv/dotnet.html
Riyaz Akhtar13y ago
See the below link, C# team has answered this question in below link:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/csharpfaq/archive/2004/03/07/85562.aspx
13y ago
Cambridge Dictionary meaning for inheritance is "a physical or mental characteristic inherited from your parents, or the process by which this happens"

Simply saying you are inheriting from your parent. How many parents you can have only one certainly not many, in other words not multiple parents.

This is the reason multiple inheritance is prohibited in C#. In other words C# is well attuned to real world scenario!

C# does provide an alternative to multiple inheritance, known as an interface.
Vulpes13y ago
Although multiple inheritance suffers from the conceptual problems which Sanjeed has described, there are solutions to these problems.

The trouble is that different object oriented languages tackle these problems in different ways and, since .NET was designed from the outset to be 'language-agnostic', it would have been difficult for its designers to come up with a common approach which would have suited all languages.

It was therefore decided to stick with single inheritance (as Java had done before it) and to make up for the lack of multiple inheritance to some extent by supporting multiple interface inheritance which doesn't have the same problems.