Overloaded method selection logic

Question

Given the following overloaded methods:

public string Test(long item)
{
    return \"Test with a long was called!\";
}

public string Test(int item)
{
    re         


        

Answer 1

The C# specification rules mean that the compiler prefers converting a short to int, not to object. I think this is due to the following rule from 7.5.3.5 Better conversion target (link is to C# 5 spec download, or see equivalent from C# 1.2 online)

Given two different types T1 and T2, T1 is a better conversion target than T2 if at least one of the following holds:

• An implicit conversion from T1 to T2 exists, and no implicit conversion from T2 to T1 exists
• T1 is a signed integral type and T2 is an unsigned integral type. [other content omitted]

To rewrite it for this scenario, since an implicit conversion from int to object exists, and no implicit conversion from object to int exists, converting to int is the better conversion.