Explicit and implicit interface implementations in F

Author: Kasper B. Graversen
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FSharp

F# has support for implementing interfaces defined in other .Net languages, e.g. C#. In this article we show that there are two ways of implementing an interface.

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Table of Content

• 1. Explicit interface implementation in FSharp
• 2. Implicit interface implementation in FSharp
• 3. Investigating the underlying code generation

In C# there are two ways to implement an interface - implicitly and explicitly. When search the web for "F# implement interface" you will be shown that there is only explicit interface implementations. But actually, you can implement the interface in such a way that it acts as a implicit interface implementation. Knowing both approaches may be important when integrating your F# code with say a C# framework.

First lets recap what it means to explicitly implement an interface. The idea is that you need to explicitly cast an object reference to the interface type, before you can access its properties. Implicit interface implementation is when you are not required to cast the reference before you access the properties of the interface. The explicit interface implementation disambiguates situations where a class implements several interfaces which accidently have methods with signature. E.g. the method Draw() and the interfaces IDrawable and ICowboy, We can't just call Draw() in a meaningful way and have both pieces of code execute.

Now let's turn to F#.

1. Explicit interface implementation in FSharp

When searching the net for how to implement interfaces in F# you will be shown something along the lines of:

type Cowboy () =
    interface ICowboy with
        member self.Draw () =
            printfn "bang bang!"

Here we define a Cowboy implementing ICowboy. We can instantiate an instance lucky1, but we cannot call Draw

let luckyLuke = (new Cowboy())
// luckyLuke.Draw() <-- NOT Possible

but if we cast our reference we can

let luckyLuke = (new Cowboy() :> ICowboy)
luckyLuke.Draw()

2. Implicit interface implementation in FSharp

An alternative way to implementing interfaces is to define the functions of your interface in your type directly, and then implement the interface by pointing to the already defined functions. This looks like this

type Cowboy () =
    member self.Draw () =
            printfn "bang bang!"

    interface ICowboy with
        member self.Draw () = self.Draw ()

This implementation strategy, although slightly more verbose, have a number of advantages. Firstly, that you can now access Draw() without casting your reference, and secondly, the code that is generated differs. This may be important when inter-operating with C# libraries.

let luckyLuke = (new Cowboy())
luckyLuke.Draw() // <-- Possible

3. Investigating the underlying code generation

I discovered the alternative way of implementing interfaces the hard way. I was using a C# library taking ICowboy's as arguments. The library would then locate the Draw() using reflection. Specifically using the GetMethods() method. Let's look at the methods defined in the type.

Explicit interface implementation

typeof(Cowboy).GetMethods()

yields

{System.Reflection.MethodInfo[4]}
    [0]: {System.String ToString()}
    [1]: {Boolean Equals(System.Object)}
    [2]: {Int32 GetHashCode()}
    [3]: {System.Type GetType()}

Implicit interface implementation

typeof(Cowboy).GetMethods()

yields

{System.Reflection.MethodInfo[5]}
    [0]: {Void Draw()}
    [1]: {System.String ToString()}
    [2]: {Boolean Equals(System.Object)}
    [3]: {Int32 GetHashCode()}
    [4]: {System.Type GetType()}

As you can see with the explicit implementation, we cannot see our Draw(). Alternatively, we can use the GetMethods(BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance) which will return the Draw() for both interface implementation strategies.

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