Network Programming in .NET

You cannot cast an object to a derived type in C#, this is called downcasting.

I.e.

class MyBase {}
class MyDerived : MyBase {}

MyBase SomeBase = new MyBase();
MyDerived SomeDerived = (MyDerived)SomeBase;

Will fail, as will

MyDerived SomeDerived = SomeBase as MyDerived

– Which will set SomeDerived to Null.

A way around this is to use reflection:

    public MyDerived(MyBase baseClass)
    {
        foreach (PropertyInfo piBase in typeof(MyBase).GetProperties())
        {
            PropertyInfo piThis = GetType().GetProperty(piBase.Name);
            piThis.SetValue(this, piBase.GetValue(baseClass, null), null);
        }
    }