For a long time I automatically created abstract methods for things I wanted to see in all my (data) objects but recently I switched quite a few to virtual, let me show why.
So a few years back I introduced a data layer in my personal projects as duplicate queries everywhere grew out of control. I started out with something like this:
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public abstract class DataObject { public abstract void Load(int id); public abstract void Save(); public abstract void LoadAll(); } |
With ReSharper asking to auto generate members and the result was a lot of NotImplementedException’s.
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public class User : DataObject { public override void Load(int id) { throw new NotImplementedException(); } public override void Save() { throw new NotImplementedException(); } public override void LoadAll() { throw new NotImplementedException(); } } |
This is fine for most DataObject as those needed Load, Save and LoadAll methods anyway, but.. more and more DataObject’s are actually read only and I never use their Save method.
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public abstract class VirtualDataObject { public abstract void Load() { NotImplementedException(); } public virtual void Save() { NotImplementedException(); } public virtual void LoadAll() { NotImplementedException(); } } |
This enables me to override the method only if neccesary and others throw the default NotImplementedException’s resulting in clean code like:
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public class Log : DataObject { public override void LoadAll() { // query } } |