How can I use a generic indifferently in one of the generic's member functions?

Question

I'm curious about the following situation:
I'd like to access another generic's private member in a constructor. How can I do that irrespective of the generic's actual type?
Here's a sample of what I'm trying to accomplish:
public class C<T>
private int _hdc;
// private T _someMember;
public C()
this._hdc = CreateHdc();
public C(C src) // what would be the correct signature here to be able to run the assignment in ::f() below?
this._hdc = src.hdc;
function f()
C<int> a = new C();
C<string> b = new C(a); // how can I get this to work?
Do I need to create a non-generic base class to be able to use a differently typed object in the construtor? Or is there some C# construct that will allow me to define an untyped generic parameter and only use the untyped members from that parameter?
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Working with SQL Server/Office/Windows and their poor keyboard support they seem extinct...

Answer 1

>>I'd like to access another generic's private member in a constructor.
You cannot access a class' private member from any other class directly. You could expose a private field through a property or define a public method (or constructor) that sets the private field though.
>>How can I do that irrespective of the generic's actual type?
You cannot assign a string field to an int value or the other way around without converting the value to a string/int first.
A C<int> object always has an int field - the generic class is not really a type of its own but rather a "blue-print" or a template for a type - and you cannot assign this one to a string value.
Since the C<string> class Always has a string field you need to convert the int value of the C<int> object to a string before you can ever assign the string field to this value:
C<int> a = new C();
C<string> b = new C(a.ToString());
C<int> and C<string> are two completely different types. They are not related to each other and as mentioned you cannot assing a string field to an int value.
>>Or is there some C# construct that will allow me to define an untyped generic parameter and only use the untyped members from that parameter?
There is no such thing as "an unyped generic parameter" in C#. T always refers to a type and you must specify the type when you create an instance of the generic type.
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