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C# casting generic parameter to interface

I need help with casting generic paremetrs down to an interface.
I have prebaked code like this:
public interface InterFoo<T> {...}
public InterFoo<T> specialFoo<T>() where T : InterFoo<T> {...}
public InterFoo<T> regularFoo<T>() {...}
and i want to implement something like this
public InterFoo<T> adaptiveFoo<T>()
{
if (T is InterFoo<T>)
return specialFoo<T as InterFoo>();
return regularFoo<T>();
}
at this point I cant find any solution so anything would be helpful, thanks.
EDIT: originally the functions had returned an int but that has a simpler solution that is incompatible with the code's intended purpose, the functions have been changed to request a generic type.

The is and as operators only compile for types that the compiler knows can be null (nullable value types or reference types).
You can try a call to IsAssignableFrom:
public int adaptiveFoo<T>()
{
if (typeof(InterFoo<T>).IsAssignableFrom(typeof(T))
return specialFoo<InterFoo>();
return regularFoo<T>();
}
** Update to reflect changes in question **
Type constraints are, unfortunately viral, in order for your method to compile (when keeping with strict type checking from the compiler) you would need the constraint to be added to this method also. However, reflection can circumvent this restriction:
Your method would be:
public InterFoo<T> adaptiveFoo<T>()
{
if (typeof(InterFoo<T>).IsAssignableFrom(typeof(T))
{
var method = typeof (Class1).GetMethod("specialFoo");
var genericMethod = method.MakeGenericMethod(typeof(T));
return (Interfoo<T>)method.Invoke(this, null);
}
return regularFoo<T>();
}

How to define generic extension method that returns type of sub generic

I have a definition like this:
public static IQueryable<D> ReturnDTO<E, D>(this IQueryable<E> query)
where D : BaseDTO, new()
where E : BaseObjectWithDTO<D, int>
{
//expression tree code to convert
}
BaseObjectWithDTO defines what type it's DTOs are. Hence I would have thought the by defining E I would have been also defining D.
But IQueryable.ReturnDTO() requires that the generic parameters be specified like this:
IQueryable.ReturnDTO<someEntity, someDTO>();
Which is obviously UGLY.
I tried making this IQueryable<E> as this IQueryable<BaseObjectWithDTO<D, int>> instead but then this has nothing as the in of the func because it won't take a type inferred by the Generic Parameter of the IQuerayble:
var projection = Expression.Lambda<Func<E, D>>(memberInitExpression, itemParam);
Ideas on how to get this to not require the types be passed every time?

Unfortunately, C#'s generic type inference system isn't as powerful as it could be. If you include a parameter involving D, then it can infer it. For example...
public static IQueryable<D> ReturnDTO<E, D>(this IQueryable<E> query,
IQueryable<BaseObjectWithDTO<D, int>> dummy)
// now you can do...
myQueryable.ReturnDTO(myQueryable);
// instead of
myQueryable.ReturnDTO<BaseObjectWithDTO<BaseDTO, int>, BaseDTO>();
It's confusing and arguably a poor design to pass the same variable in twice, but it's better (IMHO) than having to explicitly specify the types or resort to reflection or other runtime techniques to extract the types (when that's otherwise unnecessary).
Since you aren't actually going to use the dummy parameter, it doesn't matter what the value is, as long as the type is right, so you might still be able to use this at the end of a query chain, e.g. this will still return the expected value, even though you pass in two different IQueryables.
var result = otherQueryable.Where(...).ReturnDTO(otherQueryable);
If you prefer to be slightly less cryptic, you could make the dummy parameter D dummy, and then e.g. myQueryable.ReturnDTO(default(SomeDTO)) (here using default as a clear way of getting a null or default value without having a reference to a variable/field/property of that type) if you prefer.

I don't think it is possible as you currently have it designed, this MSDN page states that type inference is not possible in this scenario:
The same rules for type inference apply to static methods and instance
methods. The compiler can infer the type parameters based on the
method arguments you pass in; it cannot infer the type parameters only
from a constraint or return value.
That means you have to pass in a parameter of your type to this method for the compiler to be able to infer the types.

You have to specify the type, but it doesn't have to be done explicitly in the q.Return<E,D>(). There are ways that you can pass specify the type parameter so that it can be inferred implicitly. To do that, you'll need to change the signature a bit.
public static IQueryable<D> ReturnDTO<E, D>(this IQueryable<E> query, D dtoTypeExample = default(D))
where D : BaseDTO, new()
where E : BaseObjectWithDTO<D, int>
{
//expression tree code to convert
}
Now, even though there's a default parameter, the compiler won't be able to get it unless you pass some argument in. The thing you pass in doesn't have to be used by the method in any other way though. For example, assume you have:
public class ProductDTO : BaseDTO {
public static ProductDTO Empty { get { return new ProductDTO(); } }
}
public class Product : BaseObjectWithDTO<ProductDTO,int> {
public static IQueryable<Product> QuerySource { get; set; }
}
You could then call:
ProductDTO dto = Product.QuerySource.ReturnDTO(ProductDTO.Empty);
I'm not saying that this is necessarily a good idea, but you could do it. Also, it doesn't have to be the actual type that you pass in - you just need to pass in something that's close enough for the compiler to infer the intended type. For example, you could have a signature like:
public static IQueryable<D> ReturnDTO<E, D>(this IQueryable<E> query, Func<D,D> dtoIdentity = default(Func<D,D>))
where D : BaseDTO, new()
where E : BaseObjectWithDTO<D, int>
{
//expression tree code to convert
}
then if you have:
public class ProductDTO : BaseDTO {
public static ProductDTO Identity(ProductDTO dto){ return dto; };
}
public class Product : BaseObjectWithDTO<ProductDTO,int> {
public static IQueryable<Product> QuerySource { get; set; }
}
You could then call:
ProductDTO dto = Product.QuerySource.ReturnDTO(ProductDTO.Identity);
This might make more semantic sense to some, but it's somewhat subjective. Once again, I'm not recommending this, just saying that you can do it. If you do decide to do it though, it might save you a little work to have a self-referential generic base (Warning: Eric Lippert discourages this kind of thing). But anyway, your design would then look like:
public abstract class BaseDTO<T> where T : BaseDTO<T>, new()
{
public static T Empty { get { return new T(); } }
}
public class ProductDTO : BaseDTO<ProductDTO> { }
You could also add the type constraint to your ReturnDTO method if you want to enforce an invariant that all DTOs were then self-referential derivatives of BaseDTO<T> with public parameterless constructors. But, if you're trying to write what would conventionally be considered good code you probably won't do any of this and you'll just close your eyes and explicitly use the parameter constraint if you think it's ugly.
There is one other thing I thought of, which wouldn't be so frowned upon. Think about the Queryable.Cast<T> and Queryable.OfType<T> methods. They take a non generic IQueryable parameter but returns an IQueryable<T>. If you make sure to validate your assumptions about the parameter, it's probably clean enough. Then you would lose some compile-time type-safety though. You would need to have a non-generic base like BaseObjectWithDTO that BaseObjectWithDTO<TData,TKey> would inherit from. Your method would then look like:
public static IQueryable<D> ReturnDTO<D>(this IQueryable<BaseObjectWithDTO> query)
where D : BaseDTO, new()
{
if(query == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("query");
if( !typeof(BaseObjectWithDTO<D,int>) .IsAssignableFrom(query.GetType().GetGenericParameters()[0]))
throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("query");
//expression tree code to convert
}
That's not terrible. But it might not be good either. It's probably better than the other options I listed, but who knows.
Another syntax that might work for you just occurred to me, but it's also pretty abusive. Imagine you did go the BaseDTO<T> where T : BaseDTO<T>,new() route. You could declare the method on that type to extract the DTO queryable. This is what I'm thinking:
public abstract class BaseDTO<T>
where T : BaseDTO<T>, new()
{
public static T From(BaseObjectWithDTO<T,int> entity){
if(entity == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("entity");
//expression tree code to convert
}
}
then you don't really need that method ReturnDTO as an extension method anymore, because you have normal LINQ. You could still add it as syntactic sugar if you want, but using these semantics instead, your call ends up looking like:
IQueryable<ProductDTO> dtoQuery = from entity in Product.QuerySource select ProductDTO.From(entity);
which can also be written as
Product.QuerySource.Select(entity => ProductDTO.From(entity));
and if you were using an IEnumerable instead of an IQueryable could be
Product.QuerySource.Select(ProductDTO.From);
Please remember: All I'm saying is that you can do things this way. I'm not saying you should.

Is there a typesafe enum conversion from int in c#?

I know that I can convert an int to an enum using a cast
MyEnumType myEnum = (MyEnumType) myInteger;
The problem here is that the runtime cast won't stop me at build time if myInteger is not of type int
void MyMethod(MyObject myObject)
{
MyEnumType myEnum = (MyEnumType) myObject.someProperty;
....
}
The above is not an uncommon code pattern but it won't protect me at build-time if the object's property type has been changed.
Is there a built-in method to do this conversion that will give me a build-time error? I could, of course, write a generic method rather easily but I'm wondering if one is built in.

You can use
Enum.TryParse(myInteger.ToString(), out result)
to get the Enum value of an int.
Hope this helps,

You can create a method to do this for your one enum easily enough:
public static MyEnumType CastFromInt<T>(int n)
{
return (MyEnumType)n;
}
Sadly, because there is no way to apply a generic constraint such that a generic type argument is an enumeration, there's no good way to genericize this. You could write something like this:
public static T CastFromInt<T>(int n)
{
return (T)(object)n;
}
but that assumes the caller uses an enum as the type of T. If they don't, it has problems. This also needlessly boxes the integer.

Generic function where second parameter depends on first

Is it possible in C# to create a generic function where the first parameter is an enum (one of several so it has to be generic I guess) and the second parameter is forced to be a value from the enum selected as the first parameter? I understand generics has to be used but I can't think of how to write such an expression, or if it's even possible.
Edit: Added code example
I know that this code example doesn't work but it illustrates a little in the direction I was thinking.
public List<int> Call<EnumValue>(Type enumType, EnumValue enumValue) where EnumValue : Enum.GetValues(typeof(enumType))
{
// Something
}

I don't think it is possible to have a compile-time constraint like that. The best you could do is a run-time check:
public List<int> Call<TEnum>(Type enumType, TEnum enumValue)
{
if(!enumType.IsAssignableFrom(typeof(TEnum)))
throw new ArgumentException();
// Something
}
UPDATE: Although I'm not sure why you need to pass the Type, if it has to be same type as the other parameter anyway. Couldn't you get rid of the first parameter?
public List<int> Call<TEnum>(TEnum enumValue)
{
Type enumType = typeof(TEnum);
// Something
}

The only way I'd think of doing something similar is by adding a condition inside the function and either return something or throw an Exception if the parameter is wrong (with a clear explanation).

treat Enum as generic?

I'm trying to find a way to treat enums generically but I can't find a way to make it work. Say I have several enums declared something like this:
public enum ABC {
One,
Two,
Three
}
public enum DEF {
Four,
Five,
Six
}
and I want to write a method that takes an Enum as a parameter and simply returns name of the enum like this:
public string GetEnumName(Enum anEnum) {
return anEnum.GetType().Name;
}
but if I call it like GetEnumName(DEF); I get the 'is a type being used as a variable' error. Any ideas? thanks
EDIT Sorry judging by the replies I may not have been clear enough. I merely chose GetEnumName as a very simplistic example to illustrate the problem, not how to get the name from a type. Basically I want a method that I can pass ANY enum to and have it act on that enum directly, thanks

Use:
public static string GetTypeName<T>()
{
return typeof(T).Name;
}
Usage:
var result = GetTypeName<DEF>();

Perhaps this will do the trick?
public static class EnumExtensions
{
public static string GetEnumName<T>(this T value) where T : struct
{
var type = typeof(T);
if (!type.IsEnum)
throw new InvalidOperationException(string.Format("{0} is not an enum", type));
return type.GetEnumName(value);
}
}

What you want to write is something like this:
public string GetEnumName<T>() where T : Enum
{
return typeof(T).Name;
}
That is, a generic method with a type parameter constraint.
Unfortunately, there is no way to define such a constraint for enums in C# (nor it is possible to define one for delegates). People usually go for the solution mentioned by #ananthonline.
In fact such constraint is not supported by the C# language but it is supported at the CLR level. Using a tool like Mono.Cecil for example can help you to modify your assembly and apply the constraint on the method after you get it compiled.
Have a look to this article: Constraining generic constraints
You'll find a tool which eases the process of applying non-C#-supported generic type parameter constraints: Cecil constraint patcher
And don't forget there are a lot of useful static methods on the Enum class if you want to work with the names and values of your enum members.

Your problem is that you are passing in the type instead of the System.Type. Change your method to this:
public string GetEnumName(Type enumType) {
return enumType.Name;
}

Just pass the type:
public string GetEnumName(Type enumType)
{
return enumType.Name;
}
And
GetEnumName(typeof(ABC));
At this point if your method does nothing else you could probably just use typeof(ABC).Name instead.

You can't. Generic constraints are not allowed on enum types (including System.Enum). Use Enum.GetName instead.