The returned array 'this' in C #

Question

I have a library that contains a class. This class is intended to be extended. It will connect to the database and generate class entries that extend it. Now I want to return an array of an expandable class type. How can i do this? For example:

public this[] search(string search) {
}

How to do it?

EDIT: I use generics, this is a generic class. This means that I have no clue as to which class that will expand mine will be. Therefore, I can’t just add the class name to [] ...

EDIT 2: As pointed out, returning an array from this makes no sense (my mistake then). So I want to return an array of an extended class type. For example:

public abstract class MappingObject {
    public ExtendedClassType[] search (string search) {
    }
}

Solution found._. I'm sorry it was very simple ...

public abstract class MappingObject<T> where T : new() {
    public static List<T> search(string search) {
    }
}

Answer 1

, , - ( ):

public abstract class MyBaseClass<T> : where T : MyBaseClass<T>
{
    public abstract T[] Search(string search);
}

public class DerivedClass : MyBaseClass<DerivedClass>
{
    public override DerivedClass[] Search(string search)
    {
        return new DerivedClass[0];
    }
}

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Answer 2

'this' , : " MyClass", .

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public YourClassName[] Search(string search)
{

}

Answer 3

You mean

public class YourClass
{
    public T[] Search<T>(string search, Convertor<SearchResult, T> convertor)
    {
        ...
        List<SearchResult> results = ...
        return results.ConvertAll(convertor).ToArray();
    }
}

Thus, you delegate the transformation to the caller, who will know which type is passed as a parameter of the type type.