How to Inherit method but with different return type?

Question

Given the following classes:

ClassA
{
     public ClassA DoSomethingAndReturnNewObject()
     {}    
}

ClassB : ClassA
{}

ClassC : ClassA
{}

Answer 1

You need to create a protected virtual method for the DoSomethingAndReturnNewObject to use:

class ClassA
{
    protected virtual ClassA Create()
    {
        return new ClassA()
    }

    public ClassA DoSomethingAndReturnNewObject()
    {
        ClassA result = Create();
        // Do stuff to result
        return result;
    }
}

class ClassB : ClassA
{
     protected override ClassA Create() { return new ClassB(); }
}

class ClassC : ClassA
{
     protected override ClassA Create() { return new ClassC(); }
}

Note the return type remains ClassA but the object instance type will be the specific class.