When Should You Explicitly Implement Interfaces in C#?

Implementing Interfaces Explicitly: A Practical Application

When working with interfaces, it's common practice to implement them implicitly by inheriting them. However, there are instances where explicit implementation becomes necessary.

Question:

What scenarios necessitate the explicit implementation of interfaces? Is it merely to reduce clutter in IntelliSense?

Answer:

While reducing IntelliSense clutter can be a benefit, the primary reason for explicit implementation lies in resolving conflicts when implementing multiple interfaces with identical method signatures but different implementations.

Practical Example:

Consider the following interfaces and class:

public interface IDoItFast
{
    void Go();
}
public interface IDoItSlow
{
    void Go();
}
public class JustDoIt : IDoItFast, IDoItSlow
{
    void IDoItFast.Go()
    {
        // Fast implementation
    }

    void IDoItSlow.Go()
    {
        // Slow implementation
    }
}

In this scenario, the explicit implementation of IDoItFast.Go() and IDoItSlow.Go() allows us to provide separate implementations for each method. Without explicit implementation, the compiler would complain about the ambiguity in the implementation of Go().

By explicitly implementing interfaces, we maintain flexibility and control over the implementation of interfaces, ensuring that we can handle potential conflicts in a structured and effective manner.

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