Detect if a method was overridden using Reflection (C#)

Say I have a base class TestBase where I define a virtual method TestMe()

class TestBase
{
    public virtual bool TestMe() {  }
}

Now I inherit this class:

class Test1 : TestBase
{
    public override bool TestMe() {}
}

Now, using Reflection, I need to find if the method TestMe has been overriden in child class - is it possible?

What I need it for - I am writing a designer visualizer for type "object" to show the whole hierarchy of inheritance and also show which virtual methods were overridden at which level.

Given the type Test1, you can determine whether it has its own implementation declaration of TestMe:

typeof(Test1).GetMethod("TestMe").DeclaringType == typeof(Test1)

If the declaration came from a base type, this will evaluate false.

Note that since this is testing declaration, not true implementation, this will return true if Test1 is also abstract and TestMe is abstract, since Test1 would have its own declaration. If you want to exclude that case, add && !GetMethod("TestMe").IsAbstract

I was unable to get Ken Beckett's proposed solution to work. Here's what I settled on:

    public static bool IsOverride(MethodInfo m) {
        return m.GetBaseDefinition().DeclaringType != m.DeclaringType;
    }

There are tests in the gist.

As @CiprianBortos pointed out, the accepted answer is not complete and will lead to a nasty bug in your code if you use it as-is.

His comment provides the magic solution GetBaseDefinition(), but there's no need to check the DeclaringType if you want a general-purpose IsOverride check (which I think was the point of this question), just methodInfo.GetBaseDefinition() != methodInfo.

Or, provided as an extension method on MethodInfo, I think this will do the trick:

public static class MethodInfoUtil
{
    public static bool IsOverride(this MethodInfo methodInfo)
    {
        return (methodInfo.GetBaseDefinition() != methodInfo);
    }
}

A simple solution which will also work for protected member and properties is as follows:

var isDerived = typeof(Test1 ).GetMember("TestMe", 
               BindingFlags.NonPublic 
             | BindingFlags.Instance 
             | BindingFlags.DeclaredOnly).Length == 0;

This is a repost of my answer here, which in turn had made references to this question.

A method that also works in some non trivial cases:

public bool Overrides(MethodInfo baseMethod, Type type)
{
    if(baseMethod==null)
      throw new ArgumentNullException("baseMethod");
    if(type==null)
      throw new ArgumentNullException("type");
    if(!type.IsSubclassOf(baseMethod.ReflectedType))
        throw new ArgumentException(string.Format("Type must be subtype of {0}",baseMethod.DeclaringType));
    while(type!=baseMethod.ReflectedType)
    {
        var methods=type.GetMethods(BindingFlags.Instance|
                                    BindingFlags.DeclaredOnly|
                                    BindingFlags.Public|
                                    BindingFlags.NonPublic);
        if(methods.Any(m=>m.GetBaseDefinition()==baseMethod))
            return true;
        type=type.BaseType;
    }
    return false;
}

And a few ugly tests:

public bool OverridesObjectEquals(Type type)
{
    var baseMethod=typeof(object).GetMethod("Equals", new Type[]{typeof(object)});
    return Overrides(baseMethod,type);
}

void Main()
{
    (OverridesObjectEquals(typeof(List<int>))==false).Dump();
    (OverridesObjectEquals(typeof(string))==true).Dump();
    (OverridesObjectEquals(typeof(Hider))==false).Dump();
    (OverridesObjectEquals(typeof(HiderOverrider))==false).Dump();
    (OverridesObjectEquals(typeof(Overrider))==true).Dump();
    (OverridesObjectEquals(typeof(OverriderHider))==true).Dump();
    (OverridesObjectEquals(typeof(OverriderNothing))==true).Dump();
}

class Hider
{
  public virtual new bool Equals(object o)
    {
      throw new NotSupportedException();
    }
}


class HiderOverrider:Hider
{
  public override bool Equals(object o)
    {
      throw new NotSupportedException();
    }
}

class Overrider
{
  public override bool Equals(object o)
    {
      throw new NotSupportedException();
    }
}


class OverriderHider:Overrider
{
  public new bool Equals(object o)
    {
      throw new NotSupportedException();
    }
}

class OverriderNothing:Overrider
{

}

According to this answer there could also be a simple way to check if a virtual method was overridden without to know the exact derived or base type using a test for the MethodAttributes.NewSlot attribute:

public static bool HasOverride(this MethodInfo method)
{
    return (method.Attributes & MethodAttributes.Virtual) != 0 &&
           (method.Attributes & MethodAttributes.NewSlot) == 0;
}

Together with another extension method

private const BindingFlags Flags = BindingFlags.NonPublic |
    BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance;

public static bool HasOverride(this Type type, string name, params Type[] argTypes)
{
    MethodInfo method = type.GetMethod(name, Flags, null, CallingConventions.HasThis,
        argTypes, new ParameterModifier[0]);
    return method != null && method.HasOverride();
}

you could then simply call

bool hasOverride = GetType().HasOverride(nameof(MyMethod), typeof(Param1Type),
    typeof(Param2Type), ...);

to check if MyMethod is overridden in a derived class.

As far as I've tested this, it seemed to work fine (on my machine™).

    public static bool HasOverridingMethod(this Type type, MethodInfo baseMethod) {
        return type.GetOverridingMethod( baseMethod ) != null;
    }
    public static MethodInfo GetOverridingMethod(this Type type, MethodInfo baseMethod) {
        var flags = BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.InvokeMethod;
        return type.GetMethods( flags ).FirstOrDefault( i => baseMethod.IsBaseMethodOf( i ) );
    }
    private static bool IsBaseMethodOf(this MethodInfo baseMethod, MethodInfo method) {
        return baseMethod.DeclaringType != method.DeclaringType && baseMethod == method.GetBaseDefinition();
    }

There is a better, safer and faster way to do it. This technique makes sense if your class instance is going to have a long life and the IsOverridden check must be performed several times.

To solve this problem we can use a cache and C# delegates, much faster than reflection!

// Author: Salvatore Previti - 2011.

/// <summary>We need a delegate type to our method to make this technique works.</summary>
delegate int MyMethodDelegate(string parameter);

/// <summary>An enum used to mark cache status for IsOverridden.</summary>
enum OverriddenCacheStatus
{
    Unknown,
    NotOverridden,
    Overridden
}

public class MyClassBase
{
    /// <summary>Cache for IsMyMethodOverridden.</summary>
    private volatile OverriddenCacheStatus pMyMethodOverridden;

    public MyClassBase()
    {
        // Look mom, no overhead in the constructor!
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Returns true if method MyMethod is overridden; False if not.
    /// We have an overhead the first time this function is called, but the
    /// overhead is a lot less than using reflection alone. After the first time
    /// this function is called, the operation is really fast! Yeah!
    /// This technique works better if IsMyMethodOverridden() should
    /// be called several times on the same object.
    /// </summary>
    public bool IsMyMethodOverridden()
    {
        OverriddenCacheStatus v = this.pMyMethodOverridden;
        switch (v)
        {
            case OverriddenCacheStatus.NotOverridden:
                return false; // Value is cached! Faaast!

            case OverriddenCacheStatus.Overridden:
                return true; // Value is cached! Faaast!
        }

        // We must rebuild cache.
        // We use a delegate: also if this operation allocates a temporary object
        // it is a lot faster than using reflection!

        // Due to "limitations" in C# compiler, we need the type of the delegate!
        MyMethodDelegate md = this.MyMethod;
        
        if (md.Method.DeclaringType == typeof(MyClassBase))
        {
            this.pMyMethodOverridden = OverriddenCacheStatus.NotOverridden;
            return false;
        }

        this.pMyMethodOverridden = OverriddenCacheStatus.Overridden;
        return true;
    }

    /// <summary>Our overridable method. Can be any kind of visibility.</summary>
    protected virtual int MyMethod(string parameter)
    {
        // Default implementation
        return 1980;
    }

    /// <summary>Demo function that calls our method and print some stuff.</summary>
    public void DemoMethod()
    {
        Console.WriteLine(this.GetType().Name + " result:" + this.MyMethod("x") + " overridden:" + this.IsMyMethodOverridden());
    }
}

public class ClassSecond :
    MyClassBase
{
}

public class COverridden :
    MyClassBase
{
    protected override int MyMethod(string parameter)
    {
        return 2011;
    }
}

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        MyClassBase a = new MyClassBase();
        a.DemoMethod();

        a = new ClassSecond();
        a.DemoMethod();

        a = new COverridden();
        a.DemoMethod();

        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

When you run this program as a console application, it will print:

MyClassBase result:1980 overridden:False
ClassSecond result:1980 overridden:False
COverridden result:2011 overridden:True

Tested with Visual Studio 2010, C# 4.0. Should work also on previous versions, but it can be a little slower on C# less than 3.0 due to optimizations to delegates in the new releases, tests about this would be appreciated :) However it will be still faster than using reflection!