'MyClass' allows a class to access methods and properties as declared on itself, irrespective of them being overridden further down the inheritance heirachy. It's like using 'Me' if all the 'overridable's were removed.
Since there's no C# equivilent this was a big surprise to me, but it shouldn't have been - it's only doing the same as 'MyBase' does (against a type's ancestor): executing properties / methods by specific type address, not via virtual dispatch. As the IL for this sample shows:
Public Class Class1Calling new Class3().GetNames() produces the following (edited for brevity)
Public Overridable ReadOnly Property Name()
Get
Return "Class1"
End Get
End Property
End Class
Public Class Class2
Inherits Class1
Public Overrides ReadOnly Property Name()
Get
Return "Class2"
End Get
End Property
Public Function GetNames() As String
Dim lines(3) As String
lines(0) = MyBase.Name
lines(1) = MyClass.Name
lines(2) = Me.Name
Return String.Join(",", lines)
End Function
End Class
Public Class Class3
Inherits Class2
Public Overrides ReadOnly Property Name()
Get
Return "Class3"
End Get
End Property
End Class
// mybase - explicit dispatch to class1So the output eventually is 'Class1, Class2, Class3'. Nifty. That being said, I can't honestly say I've ever really needed this, so it might go back into the 'curios' collection. Useful in a pinch maybe, but surely it's a smell? As if designing-for-subclassing wasn't hard enough as it is...
L_000b: call instance object ConsoleApplication1.Class1::get_Name()
// myclass - explicit dispatch to class2
L_001a: call instance object ConsoleApplication1.Class2::get_Name()
// me - virtual dispatch, will resove to class3's implementation
L_0029: callvirt instance object ConsoleApplication1.Class2::get_Name()
PS: Interestingly the Reflector disassembler doesn't understand this either, so it wasn't just me that missed it: Reflector thinks the VB was:
Public Function GetNames() As String
Dim lines As String() = New String(4 - 1) {}
lines(0) = Conversions.ToString(MyBase.Name)
lines(1) = Conversions.ToString(Me.Name) ' got this wrong
lines(2) = Conversions.ToString(Me.Name)
Return String.Join(",", lines)
End Function