C# Generics: Constraining T where T : Object doesn't compile; Error: Constraint cannot be special class 'object'

Question

When I constrain T with : Object like this:

public interface IDoWork where T : Object
{
    T DoWork();
}

I get the error:

Answer 1

There is no difference between the two constraints, except for that one is disallowed for being useless to explicitly state.

The C# 4.0 language specification (10.1.5 Type parameter constraints) says two things about this:

The type must not be object. Because all types derive from object, such a constraint would have no effect if it were permitted.

...

If T has no primary constraints or type parameter constraints, its effective base class is object.

In your comment, you said that you were trying to make T be of type Void. Void is a special type that indicates that there is no return type and cannot be used in place of T, which requires an appropriate concrete type. You will have to create a void version of your method and a T version if you want both.