What are some practical uses of the "new" modifier in C# with respect to hiding?
- by Joel Etherton
A co-worker and I were looking at the behavior of the new keyword in C# as it applies to the concept of hiding. From the documentation:
Use the new modifier to explicitly hide a member inherited from a base
class. To hide an inherited member, declare it in the derived class
using the same name, and modify it with the new modifier.
We've read the documentation, and we understand what it basically does and how it does it. What we couldn't really get a handle on is why you would need to do it in the first place. The modifier has been there since 2003, and we've both been working with .Net for longer than that and it's never come up.
When would this behavior be necessary in a practical sense (e.g.: as applied to a business case)? Is this a feature that has outlived its usefulness or is what it does simply uncommon enough in what we do (specifically we do web forms and MVC applications and some small factor WinForms and WPF)? In trying this keyword out and playing with it we found some behaviors that it allows that seem a little hazardous if misused.
This sounds a little open-ended, but we're looking for a specific use case that can be applied to a business application that finds this particular tool useful.
