#1,148 – When to Use a Generic Covariant Interface

You can use a generic covariant interface as a workaround for the lack of covariance in generic types.

Suppose that we have a generic Pile<T> type as follows:

    public class Pile<T> where T: class
    {
        List<T> pile = new List<T>();

        public void Add(T item)
        {
            if (!pile.Contains(item))
                pile.Add(item);
        }

        public T GetFirst()
        {
            return (pile.Count > 0) ? pile[0] : null;
        }
    }

Because this generic type doesn’t support covariance, we can run into the problem shown below.

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Pile<Terrier> lilDogs = new Pile<Terrier>();
            lilDogs.Add(new Terrier("Jack"));
            lilDogs.Add(new Terrier("Eddie"));

            // Compile error: can't convert from Pile<Terrier> to
            // Pile<Dog>
            ShowFirstDog(lilDogs);
        }

        static void ShowFirstDog(Pile<Dog> dogs)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(dogs.GetFirst().Name);
        }

We could write a method that took a Pile<Terrier>, rather than Pile<Dog>, but the it still might be useful to have a Pile<Dog> version that could handle various subtypes of Dog.

The workaround is to add an interface to Pile<T> that contains only methods that have T as an output parameter.  The interface marks the T parameter with the out keyword.  The updated code is shown below.

    public interface IGetFirst<out T>
    {
        T GetFirst();
    }

    public class Pile<T> : IGetFirst<T>
        where T: class
    {
        List<T> pile = new List<T>();

        public void Add(T item)
        {
            if (!pile.Contains(item))
                pile.Add(item);
        }

        public T GetFirst()
        {
            return (pile.Count > 0) ? pile[0] : null;
        }
    }

We can now use IGetFirst<T> covariantly, rather than trying to use Pile<T> covariantly.

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Pile<Terrier> lilDogs = new Pile<Terrier>();
            lilDogs.Add(new Terrier("Jack"));
            lilDogs.Add(new Terrier("Eddie"));

            // This works !
            ShowFirstDog(lilDogs);
        }

        static void ShowFirstDog(IGetFirst<Dog> dogs)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(dogs.GetFirst().Name);
        }

#1,147 – Why Generics Don’t Support Covariance

In C#, arrays support covariance, but generics do not.  Generics aren’t covariant in order to avoid the problem that we have with covariant arrays.  With arrays, we get type mismatch exceptions when trying to put something into the array of the wrong type.  The core problem here is that the array looks syntactically like an array of the base type, but is actually an array of the more derived type.

Generics in C# aren’t covariant in order to avoid this same problem.  The language designers decided to support covariance for arrays but not for generics.  The reasons are likely more historical than technical.

            // Array covariance--OK
            Dog[] dogs = new Terrier[5];

            // The problem with array covariance.
            // Compiler allows, but throws ArrayTypeMismatchException
            // at run-time
            dogs[0] = new BorderCollie("Shep");

            // Generic covariance--not allowed (compiler error)
            List<Dog> moreDogs = new List<Terrier>();