Is there a way to make the .NET Cast<T> extension method use user defined implicit cast operators? [duplicate]

Question

This question already has answers here:

IEnumerable<T>.Cast won't work even if an explicit cast operator is defined? (5 answers)

Closed 9 years ago.

When I define an implicit cast operator, then attempt to invoke it on a whole collection of objects at once using the Cast<T> extension method, I get an InvalidCastException. Is there any workaround for this problem?

Answer 1

No, Cast treats each item as Object and casts it to the target type, so it can't use user-defined conversions because conversion are resolved statically. Instead you can just do this:

collection.Select(x => (YourType)x)

Answer 2

No.

Cast is a CLR method. It does not incorporate C# specific binding rules because it is independent of any specific CLR language. Implicit conversions are specific to a few .NET languages.

You have to create your own version of Cast.