Optional Readonly Property in VB.Net Interface

Question

I am trying to develop a simple interface for allowing quick lists to be generated from classes. Basically, the interface needs to return an ID and a Name. However, some classes have a calculated name property which is read only, others just use a read/write name property. Basically, all I care is that it has a getter, it does not matter if the property has a setter. How can I write this interface to handle either or without throwing compile errors?

I have read this question and didn't really follow it, maybe I am just dense. If so, please show me the error of my ways :)

Answer 1

Looks like the answer from the other question will work: here's a sample:

Public Interface IReadOnly
    ReadOnly Property Name() As String
End Interface

Public Interface IReadWrite
    Inherits IReadOnly

    Overloads Property Name() As String

End Interface

Public Class ReadOnlyClass
    Implements IReadOnly

    Private _Name
    Public ReadOnly Property Name() As String Implements IReadOnly.Name
        Get
            Return _Name
        End Get
    End Property
End Class

Public Class ReadWriteClass
    Implements IReadWrite

    Private ReadOnly Property ReadOnly_Name() As String Implements IReadOnly.Name
        Get
            Return Name
        End Get
    End Property

    Private _Name As String
    Public Overloads Property Name() As String Implements IReadWrite.Name
        Get
            Return _Name
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _Name = value
        End Set
    End Property
End Class

---

The above approach will actually result in classes that implement IReadWrite also implementing IReadOnly--so you'll actually need to downcast to IReadWrite in order to set the property.

Another approach, which avoids that issue but requires a little more logic in the implementing classes and their caller's is something like:

Public Interface ISometimesWritable
    Property Name() As String
    ReadOnly Property AllowNameEdit() As Boolean
End Interface

Public Class ReadOnlyClass
    Implements ISometimesWritable

    Public ReadOnly Property AllowNameEdit() As Boolean Implements ISometimesWritable.AllowNameEdit
        Get
            Return False
        End Get
    End Property

    Private _Name As String
    Public Property Name() As String Implements ISometimesWritable.Name
        Get
            Return _Name
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            Throw New NotSupportedException("Name cannot be set when AllowNameEdit is False")
        End Set
    End Property
End Class

Public Class ReadWriteClass
    Implements ISometimesWritable

    Public ReadOnly Property AllowNameEdit() As Boolean Implements ISometimesWritable.AllowNameEdit
        Get
            Return True
        End Get
    End Property

    Private _Name As String
    Public Property Name() As String Implements ISometimesWritable.Name
        Get
            Return _Name
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _Name = value
        End Set
    End Property
End Class

---

Update: To answer the question about downcasting; "downcasting" is a term used to describe casting an object from a superclass, interface, or abstract base class Type into a more concrete Type.

For example, the first example above defines two interfaces: IReadOnly and IReadWrite. You'll notice that IReadWrite implements IReadOnly, which means that you can make both IReadWrite and IReadOnly calls to objects which implement IReadWrite.

Since IReadWrite implements IReadOnly, IReadWrite is said to be a "sub-class" of IReadOnly (although "sub-class" is more accurately used to describe a class which inherits a base class, rather then implements an interface--for the sake of simplicity they are very nearly the same concept). If IReadWrite is a sub-class of IReadOnly, then the inverse is true--IReadOnly is a super-class of IReadWrite.

For example, I can describe an instance of ReadWriteClass as an implementation of either interface:

Public Sub SomeMethod()
    dim readOnlyInstance as IReadOnly = new ReadWriteClass()
    Console.WriteLine(readOnlyInstance.Name)

    ' The following line won't compile, since we're communicating with ReadWriteClass as an instance of IReadOnly
    'readOnlyInstance.Name = "Santa Clause"

    ' Here we downcast the variable to reference it by it's other interface, IReadWrite
    dim readWriteInstance = DirectCast(readOnlyInstance, IReadWrite)

    ' Now we can both Get and Set the value of Name
    readWriteInstance.Name = "John Doe"
    Console.WriteLine(readWriteInstance.Name)

    ' Note that in the above example we created *one* instance of ReadWriteClass
    ' and have provided two variables / references to the same underlying object.
    Console.WriteLine(readOnlyInstance.Name) ' <-- note that this should return "John Doe"

End Sub