Why Can't Static Classes Be Inherited in C#?

Why the Inability to Inherit Static Classes in C#?

Despite the practical desire to organize static classes in a hierarchical structure, C# restricts the inheritance of such classes. This limitation stems from the design considerations of the language creators.

According to Mads Torgersen, the C# Language PM, static class inheritance is unwarranted because:

• Static classes have publicly accessible members that can be directly accessed via the class name.
• The primary motivations for inheriting static members have often been considered poor practice, such as typing convenience.
• Static member inheritance is not a suitable mechanism for integrating static members into scope.

Moreover, inheritance in .NET operates solely on instance-based methods. Static methods, being defined on type levels rather than instance levels, lack the necessary virtual table for overriding. Invoking static methods also differs from instance methods, as they lack the implicit passing of the current instance as the first argument. This makes it impossible for the compiler to determine which method to invoke during inheritance.

As a partial solution, the Singleton pattern can be utilized to emulate the behavior of inherited static classes without violating language limitations.

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