Is there any way to call the parent version of an overridden method? (C# .NET)

Inside of ChildClass.methodTwo(), you can call base.methodTwo().

Outside of the class, calling ((ParentClass)a).methodTwo() will call ChildClass.methodTwo. That's the whole reason why virtual methods exist.

At the IL level, you could probably issue a call rather than a callvirt, and get the job done - but if we limit ourselves to C# ;-p (edit darn! the runtime stops you: VerificationException: "Operation could destabilize the runtime."; remove the virtual and it works fine; too clever by half...)

Inside the ChildClass type, you can use base.methodTwo() - however, this is not possible externally. Nor can you go down more than one level - there is no base.base.Foo() support.

However, if you disable polymorphism using method-hiding, you can get the answer you want, but for bad reasons:

class ChildClass : ParentClass
{
    new public int methodTwo() // bad, do not do
    {
        return 2;
    }
}

Now you can get a different answer from the same object depending on whether the variable is defined as a ChildClass or a ParentClass.

As mentioned above, something is bad with your class design if you need to call "base.base" in PRODUCTION code. But it is quite legitimate to use this technique if you are debugging or searching some workarrounds while using external libraries you cannot compile. It is unpleasant that C# does not provide this option directly. Still you may use Kenneth Xu solution with IL generator and Emit. It works.

class A { public virtual string foo() { return "A"; } }

class B : A { public override string foo() { return "B"; } }

// now in class C
class C : B {}      
// we can call virtual method "foo" from A using following code
MethodInfo fooA = typeof(A).GetMethod("foo", BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance);

DynamicMethod baseBaseFoo = new DynamicMethod(
            "foo_A",
            typeof(string),
            new[] { typeof(A) },
            typeof(A));
        ILGenerator il = baseBaseFoo.GetILGenerator();
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg, 0);
        il.EmitCall(OpCodes.Call, fooA, null);
        il.Emit(OpCodes.Ret);

// call foo() from class A, it returns "A"
(string)baseBaseFoo.Invoke(null, new object[] { this });

For reference and a complete sample see http://kennethxu.blogspot.cz/2009/05/cnet-calling-grandparent-virtual-method.html

Thank you Kenneth Xu!

As Mark Gravell said, no, not externally. But here's another hack I have used. ChildClass can expose methodTwo() from the ParentClass for its own use or for external use. In your case:

class ChildClass : ParentClass {
    override public int methodTwo() {
        return 2;
    }
    public int ParentClass_methodTwo() {
        return base.methodTwo();
    }
}

// Now instead of
Console.WriteLine("ParentClass methodTwo: " + ((ParentClass)a).methodTwo());
// use
Console.WriteLine("ParentClass methodTwo: " + a.ParentClass_methodTwo());

In my case, the child class introduced the concept of a Peer, and I needed its override of methodTwo() to invoke the base version on the peer. By overridding it, however, it hid it... Or did it? This technique came to the rescue.

class ChildClass : ParentClass {
    ChildClass peer;
    override public int methodTwo() {
        return peer.ParentClass_methodTwo();
    }
    private int ParentClass_methodTwo() {
        return base.methodTwo();
    }
}