Type.BaseType Property

public abstract Type BaseType { get; }

Implements

The base type is the type from which the current type directly inherits. Object is the only type that does not have a base type, therefore null is returned as the base type of Object.

Interfaces inherit from zero or more base interfaces; therefore, this property returns null if the Type object represents an interface. The base interfaces can be determined with GetInterfaces or FindInterfaces.

If the current Type represents a constructed generic type, the base type reflects the generic arguments. For example, consider the following declarations:

class B<U> { }
class C<T> : B<T> { }

For the constructed type C<int> (C(Of Integer) in Visual Basic), the BaseType property returns B<int>.

If the current Type represents a type parameter of a generic type definition, BaseType returns the class constraint, that is, the class the type parameter must inherit. If there is no class constraint, BaseType returns System.Object.

This property is read-only.

The following example demonstrates using the BaseType property.

using System;
class TestType 
{
    public static void Main() 
    {
        Type t = typeof(int);
        Console.WriteLine("{0} inherits from {1}.", t,t.BaseType);
    }
}

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

Portable Class Library

Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, Windows 7, Windows Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core Role not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core Role supported with SP1 or later; Itanium not supported)

The .NET Framework does not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

Reference

Other Resources