C#: override a property of the parent class
What you have done there is member hiding. If the class you are deriving from has marked the property as virtual
, or is overriding it from it's base (if it has one) you use the override
keyword:
public override DateTime NotAfter
The member hiding can be used when the base class has marked it virtual
, however if someone cast a reference of your class into the base class and accessed the member, they would bypass your new
hiding. With true inheritance using override
, this problem does not occur.
As has been noted by someone, this property is not marked virtual
:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.security.cryptography.x509certificates.x509certificate2.notafter.aspx
Member hiding will allow you to get around this if people use your class directly, but the moment someone casts your class back to a base type, they get the base value:
class MyClass : Cert...
MyClass c = new MyClass();
DateTime foo = c.NotAfter; // Your newly specified property.
Cert cBase = (Cert)c;
foo = cBase.NotAfter; // Oops, base value. Inheritance cures this, but only with virtual members.