Skip to content

Summary: Abstract and virtual member

Maira Wenzel edited this page Apr 23, 2019 · 1 revision

The following table provides wording guidelines and boilerplate text for Summary sections for abstract and virtual members of abstract classes.

Item Wording Examples
Abstract member of an abstract class When overridden in a derived class, <continue with a present-tense third-person verb stating what the member does>. XmlWriter.Close member summary:
When overridden in a derived class, closes this stream and the underlying stream.
Virtual member of an abstract class that does not provide the intended implementation When overridden in a derived class, <continue with a present-tense third-person verb stating what the member does>.

Note:
In the Remarks section, include a sentence that explains the default, unintended behavior.
Stream.ReadByte summary:
When overridden in a derived class, reads the next byte from this stream and advances the current position of the stream by one.

Include the following in Stream.ReadByte remarks:
Because the Stream class doesn't support reading, ReadByte throws a NotSupportedException exception by default.