c# - still confused about covariance and contravariance & in/out

Question

ok i read a bit on this topic on stackoverflow, watched this & this, but still a bit confused about co/contra-variance.

from here

Covariance allows a "bigger" (less specific) type to be substituted in an API where the original type is only used in an "output" position (e.g. as a return value). Contravariance allows a "smaller" (more specific) type to be substituted in an API where the original type is only used in an "input" position.

i know it has to do with type safety.

about the in/out thing. can i say i use in when i need to write to it, and out when its read only. and in means contra-variance, out co-variance. but from the explanation above...

and here

For example, a List<Banana> can't be treated as a List<Fruit> because list.Add(new Apple()) is valid for List but not for List<Banana>.

so shouldn't it be, if i were to use in/ am going to write to the object, it must be bigger more generic.

i know this question has been asked but still very confused.

Answer 1

I had to think long and hard on how to explain this well. Explaining is seems to be just as hard as understanding it.

Imagine you have a base class Fruit. And you have two subclasses Apple and Banana.

     Fruit
      / 
Banana   Apple

You create two objects:

Apple a = new Apple();
Banana b = new Banana();

For both of these objects you can typecast them into the Fruit object.

Fruit f = (Fruit)a;
Fruit g = (Fruit)b;

You can treat derived classes as if they were their base class.

However you cannot treat a base class like it was a derived class

a = (Apple)f; //This is incorrect

Lets apply this to the List example.

Suppose you created two Lists:

List<Fruit> fruitList = new List<Fruit>();
List<Banana> bananaList = new List<Banana>();

You can do something like this...

fruitList.Add(new Apple());

and

fruitList.Add(new Banana());

because it is essentially typecasting them as you add them into the list. You can think of it like this...

fruitList.Add((Fruit)new Apple());
fruitList.Add((Fruit)new Banana());

However, applying the same logic to the reverse case raises some red flags.

bananaList.Add(new Fruit());

is the same as

bannanaList.Add((Banana)new Fruit());

Because you cannot treat a base class like a derived class this produces errors.

Just in case your question was why this causes errors I'll explain that too.

Here's the Fruit class

public class Fruit
{
    public Fruit()
    {
        a = 0;
    }
    public int A { get { return a; } set { a = value } }
    private int a;
}

and here's the Banana class

public class Banana: Fruit
{
   public Banana(): Fruit() // This calls the Fruit constructor
   {
       // By calling ^^^ Fruit() the inherited variable a is also = 0; 
       b = 0;
   }
   public int B { get { return b; } set { b = value; } }
   private int b;
}

So imagine that you again created two objects

Fruit f = new Fruit();
Banana ba = new Banana();

remember that Banana has two variables "a" and "b", while Fruit only has one, "a". So when you do this...

f = (Fruit)b;
f.A = 5;

You create a complete Fruit object. But if you were to do this...

ba = (Banana)f;
ba.A = 5;
ba.B = 3; //Error!!!: Was "b" ever initialized? Does it exist?

The problem is that you don't create a complete Banana class.Not all the data members are declared / initialized.

Now that I'm back from the shower and got my self a snack heres where it gets a little complicated.

In hindsight I should have dropped the metaphor when getting into the complicated stuff

lets make two new classes:

public class Base
public class Derived : Base

They can do whatever you like

Now lets define two functions

public Base DoSomething(int variable)
{
    return (Base)DoSomethingElse(variable);
}  
public Derived DoSomethingElse(int variable)
{
    // Do stuff 
}

This is kind of like how "out" works you should always be able to use a derived class as if it were a base class, lets apply this to an interface

interface MyInterface<T>
{
    T MyFunction(int variable);
}

The key difference between out/in is when the Generic is used as a return type or a method parameter, this the the former case.

lets define a class that implements this interface:

public class Thing<T>: MyInterface<T> { }

then we create two objects:

MyInterface<Base> base = new Thing<Base>;
MyInterface<Derived> derived = new Thing<Derived>;

If you were do this:

base = derived;

You would get an error like "cannot implicitly convert from..."

You have two choices, 1) explicitly convert them or, 2) tell the complier to implicitly convert them.

base = (MyInterface<Base>)derived; // #1

or

interface MyInterface<out T>  // #2
{
    T MyFunction(int variable);
}

The second case comes in to play if your interface looks like this:

interface MyInterface<T>
{
    int MyFunction(T variable); // T is now a parameter
}

relating it to the two functions again

public int DoSomething(Base variable)
{
    // Do stuff
}  
public int DoSomethingElse(Derived variable)
{
    return DoSomething((Base)variable);
}

hopefully you see how the situation has reversed but is essentially the same type of conversion.

Using the same classes again

public class Base
public class Derived : Base
public class Thing<T>: MyInterface<T> { }

and the same objects

MyInterface<Base> base = new Thing<Base>;
MyInterface<Derived> derived = new Thing<Derived>;

if you try to set them equal

base = derived;

your complier will yell at you again, you have the same options as before

base = (MyInterface<Base>)derived;

or

interface MyInterface<in T> //changed
{
    int MyFunction(T variable); // T is still a parameter
}

Basically use out when the generic is only going to be used as a return type of the interface methods. Use in when it is going to be used as a Method parameter. The same rules apply when using delegates too.

There are strange exceptions but I'm not going to worry about them here.

Sorry for any careless mistakes in advance =)