User-defined conversion operator from base class

Question

Introduction

I am aware that \"user-defined conversions to or from a base class are not allowed\". MSDN gives, as an explanation to this rule, \"You

Answer 1

Ugg, I ended up just doing a simple Cast() method inside my modified entity. Maybe I am just missing the point, but I need to modify my base type so I can keep my code inside the new object to do x. I would have used public static explicit operator if the compiler would let me. The inheritance messes it up explicit cast operator.

Usage:

var newItem = UpgradedEnity(dbItem);
var stuff = newItem.Get();

Sample:

public class UpgradedEnity : OriginalEnity_Type
    {
        public string Get()
        {
            foreach (var item in this.RecArray)
            {
                //do something
            }
            return "return something";
        }

        public static UpgradedEnity Cast(OriginalEnity_Type v)
        {
            var rv = new UpgradedEnity();
            PropertyCopier.Copy(v, rv);
            return rv;
        }

        public class PropertyCopier where TParent : class
                                            where TChild : class
        {
            public static void Copy(TParent from, TChild to)
            {
                var parentProperties = from.GetType().GetProperties();
                var childProperties = to.GetType().GetProperties();

                foreach (var parentProperty in parentProperties)
                {
                    foreach (var childProperty in childProperties)
                    {
                        if (parentProperty.Name == childProperty.Name && parentProperty.PropertyType == childProperty.PropertyType)
                        {
                            childProperty.SetValue(to, parentProperty.GetValue(from));
                            break;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }