Vb.Net Generics mixed with Overloaded Event

I am looking for a little expert design insight. I am trying to save an overloaded property from a generic class.

Base Class

 Public MustInherit Class BaseEvent

    Public MustOverride ReadOnly Property IsWorkCalendar() As Boolean

    Private _Location As Enums.LocationType
    Public Overridable Property Location() As Enums.LocationType
        Get
            Return _Location
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As Enums.LocationType)
            _Location = value
        End Set
    End Property

End Class

Implemented BaseEvent Class

Public Class MyEvent
    Inherits BaseEvent

    Private _Location As String
    Public Overloads Property Location As String
        Get
            Return _Location
        End Get
        Set(value As String)
            _Location = value
     开发者_JS百科   End Set
    End Property
End Class

Generic Class

Public Function GetItemHeaders(Of T As {Core.Events.BaseEvent, New})() As IEnumerable(Of Core.Events.BaseEvent) Implements IMethods.GetItemHeaders
    Dim myEvents = Helper.GetAllEvents(_Service)
    Dim genericEvents As New List(Of BaseEvent)()

        ...loop through items...            

        Dim genericEvent As T = New T()

        If genericEvent.IsWorkCalendar Then
            Dim location As Enums.LocationType = Enums.LocationType.NotConfigured
            If ([Enum].IsDefined(GetType(Enums.LocationType), fooString)) Then
                location = [Enum].Parse(GetType(Enums.LocationType), fooString)
            End If
            genericEvent.Location = location
        Else
            - Always uses the BaseEvent Location and casses an error since I am trying to store a string

            genericEvent.Location = otherPlace
        End If

        ....

        genericEvents.Add(genericEvent)

    Next

    Return genericEvents
End Function

Thanks in advance! Ryan

I think your problem is that the property you are trying to overload has the same signature (it only differs by the return type). In general you can't do that. Check out this similar post:

Is there a way to overload a property in .NET?

You have two problems that jump out. The first is that you are trying to give two meanings to a property with the same name. Even if overloading like you did is allowed, it is Very Bad Design(tm). This will be very confusing for anyone that has to look at the code later on.

So pretending that you change the string version to LocationName in both the derived class and the else branch of the method you showed, we hit the second problem. Roughly speaking, you have a reference to a base class in this method. However, you are trying to call a method from a derived class. To do this, you will either need to restrict the generic type further or perform a type cast.

I'm not sure where fooString and otherPlace come from in your example, but if they are both supposed to be the same string, it may be better to have your method take a Func(Of String, BaseEvent) instead of relying on IsWorkCalendar. As a side effect, this would remove the need for the method to be generic.