C# – way to navigate to real implementation of method behind an interface

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In Visual Studio, when you right-click a method call, you go to the implementation of that method inside a class except if you access this method through an interface: in that case you go to the interface method not to the actual implementation.

Is there a way / tips (key shortcut or anything) to access this actual implementation ? Otherwise you are stuck to add some comment just to remember where you did implement it that's really not productive and error prone !

Update: interesting answers but I'm not really satisfied because all are cumbersome. I will give a precise example:

IInterface iInterface = someObject;                        
iInterface.someMethod();

Actually if Visual Studio was just a little bit clever to look just one line above the method call it would see where's the real object is. And that would save me a lot of keystrokes and avoid to use "find all references" and then scan the lines with my tired eyes to see which line contain the right one 🙂

Best Answer

I do the following:

1) Right click on the method and click "View call hierarchy" (or shortcut Ctrl+K, Ctrl+T)

2) Expand the "Implements x" folder which will then show you all the implementations of that method. Click on one to go there.

Relatively quick and easy. Annoyingly though there doesn't seem to be an equivalent for the interface itself.

update: as of Visual Studio 2015 update 1, right click on a method and select go to implementation. You can also map it to keyboard shortcut via Tools > Options > Environment > Keyboard and search for Edit.GoToImplementation command. The default shortcut is Ctrl+F12. (F12 will navigate to the interface).

Related Solutions

C# – Why is there no ForEach extension method on IEnumerable

There is already a foreach statement included in the language that does the job most of the time.

I'd hate to see the following:

list.ForEach( item =>
{
    item.DoSomething();
} );

Instead of:

foreach(Item item in list)
{
     item.DoSomething();
}

The latter is clearer and easier to read in most situations, although maybe a bit longer to type.

However, I must admit I changed my stance on that issue; a ForEach() extension method would indeed be useful in some situations.

Here are the major differences between the statement and the method:

Type checking: foreach is done at runtime, ForEach() is at compile time (Big Plus!)
The syntax to call a delegate is indeed much simpler: objects.ForEach(DoSomething);
ForEach() could be chained: although evilness/usefulness of such a feature is open to discussion.

Those are all great points made by many people here and I can see why people are missing the function. I wouldn't mind Microsoft adding a standard ForEach method in the next framework iteration.

C# – How to find all implementations of an interface

You can right click a method name (definition in interface or implementation in other class) and choose View Call Hierarchy. In Call Hierarchy window there is "Implements" folder where you can find all locations of the interface method implementation.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – Why is there no ForEach extension method on IEnumerable

C# – How to find all implementations of an interface

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