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How to raise base class events in derived classes (C# Programming Guide)

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The following simple example shows the standard way to declare events in a base class so that they can also be raised from derived classes. This pattern is used extensively in Windows Forms classes in the .NET class libraries.

When you create a class that can be used as a base class for other classes, you should consider the fact that events are a special type of delegate that can only be invoked from within the class that declared them. Derived classes cannot directly invoke events that are declared within the base class. Although sometimes you may want an event that can only be raised by the base class, most of the time, you should enable the derived class to invoke base class events. To do this, you can create a protected invoking method in the base class that wraps the event. By calling or overriding this invoking method, derived classes can invoke the event indirectly.

Note

Do not declare virtual events in a base class and override them in a derived class. The C# compiler does not handle these correctly and it is unpredictable whether a subscriber to the derived event will actually be subscribing to the base class event.

Example


namespace BaseClassEvents
{
    // Special EventArgs class to hold info about Shapes.
    public class ShapeEventArgs : EventArgs
    {
        public ShapeEventArgs(double area)
        {
            NewArea = area;
        }

        public double NewArea { get; }
    }

    // Base class event publisher
    public abstract class Shape
    {
        protected double _area;

        public double Area
        {
            get => _area;
            set => _area = value;
        }

        // The event. Note that by using the generic EventHandler<T> event type
        // we do not need to declare a separate delegate type.
        public event EventHandler<ShapeEventArgs> ShapeChanged;

        public abstract void Draw();

        //The event-invoking method that derived classes can override.
        protected virtual void OnShapeChanged(ShapeEventArgs e)
        {
            // Safely raise the event for all subscribers
            ShapeChanged?.Invoke(this, e);
        }
    }

    public class Circle : Shape
    {
        private double _radius;

        public Circle(double radius)
        {
            _radius = radius;
            _area = 3.14 * _radius * _radius;
        }

        public void Update(double d)
        {
            _radius = d;
            _area = 3.14 * _radius * _radius;
            OnShapeChanged(new ShapeEventArgs(_area));
        }

        protected override void OnShapeChanged(ShapeEventArgs e)
        {
            // Do any circle-specific processing here.

            // Call the base class event invocation method.
            base.OnShapeChanged(e);
        }

        public override void Draw()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Drawing a circle");
        }
    }

    public class Rectangle : Shape
    {
        private double _length;
        private double _width;

        public Rectangle(double length, double width)
        {
            _length = length;
            _width = width;
            _area = _length * _width;
        }

        public void Update(double length, double width)
        {
            _length = length;
            _width = width;
            _area = _length * _width;
            OnShapeChanged(new ShapeEventArgs(_area));
        }

        protected override void OnShapeChanged(ShapeEventArgs e)
        {
            // Do any rectangle-specific processing here.

            // Call the base class event invocation method.
            base.OnShapeChanged(e);
        }

        public override void Draw()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Drawing a rectangle");
        }
    }

    // Represents the surface on which the shapes are drawn
    // Subscribes to shape events so that it knows
    // when to redraw a shape.
    public class ShapeContainer
    {
        private readonly List<Shape> _list;

        public ShapeContainer()
        {
            _list = new List<Shape>();
        }

        public void AddShape(Shape shape)
        {
            _list.Add(shape);

            // Subscribe to the base class event.
            shape.ShapeChanged += HandleShapeChanged;
        }

        // ...Other methods to draw, resize, etc.

        private void HandleShapeChanged(object sender, ShapeEventArgs e)
        {
            if (sender is Shape shape)
            {
                // Diagnostic message for demonstration purposes.
                Console.WriteLine($"Received event. Shape area is now {e.NewArea}");

                // Redraw the shape here.
                shape.Draw();
            }
        }
    }

    class Test
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            //Create the event publishers and subscriber
            var circle = new Circle(54);
            var rectangle = new Rectangle(12, 9);
            var container = new ShapeContainer();

            // Add the shapes to the container.
            container.AddShape(circle);
            container.AddShape(rectangle);

            // Cause some events to be raised.
            circle.Update(57);
            rectangle.Update(7, 7);

            // Keep the console window open in debug mode.
            Console.WriteLine("Press any key to continue...");
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}
/* Output:
        Received event. Shape area is now 10201.86
        Drawing a circle
        Received event. Shape area is now 49
        Drawing a rectangle
 */

See also