C#: does not contain a constructor that takes ( ) arguments

Question

A newcommer's question:
I made a small (incomplete) program and cannt get it to compile. I get the error:
"Error 1 'Animals1.Zoo' does not contain a constructor that takes '4' arguments".
I belive I made all constructors as I should, but still can't get it to run.
What am I doing wrong?

Here it is:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace Animals1
{
    //This is the base class for all Animals
    abstract public class Zoo
    {
        //Defs:

        string AnimalName;
        int AnimalID;
        String AnimalCryOut;
        Decimal AverageWheight;

        // Default ctor.
        public Zoo() { }

        // Custom ctor
        public void Elephant(string AnimalName, int AnimalID, String AnimalCryOut, Decimal AverageWheight)
        {
            this.AnimalName = AnimalName;
            this.AnimalID = AnimalID;
            this.AnimalCryOut = AnimalCryOut;
            this.AverageWheight = AverageWheight;
        }

        public virtual void DisplayInfo()
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Name: {0}", AnimalName);
            Console.WriteLine("ID: {0}", AnimalID);
            Console.WriteLine("Shout: {0}", AnimalCryOut);
            Console.WriteLine("Wheight: {0}", AverageWheight);
            return;
        }
    }
    //======================
    class Elephant : Zoo
    {
        public Elephant() { }

        public Elephant(string AnimalName, int AnimalID, String AnimalCryOut, Decimal AverageWheight)
            : base(AnimalName, AnimalID, AnimalCryOut, AverageWheight)
        {
        }

        public override void DisplayInfo()
        {
            base.DisplayInfo();
            Console.WriteLine("Elephant Info");
        }

    }

    //==========================
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Elephant Dumbo = new Elephant("Dumbo", 1001, "Ahooo...", 3400);
            //Snake Sleeky = new Snake("Sleeky", 2002, "Ahooo...", 2);
            //Fish Wanda = new Fish("Wanda", 3003, "", 12);
        }

    }
}

Answer 1

The Elephant constructor calls the Zoo constructor (base) with 4 arguments.  Zoo doesn't have such a constructor.  I assume you accidentally used "Elephant" instead of "Zoo" in the Zoo class.  You commented it // Custom ctor, it is not a ctor.  Constructors don't have a return type.

Also consider the confusion your code might cause to a reader.  An Elephant is an Animal, not a Zoo.  A Zoo is a collection of Animals.

---

Hans Passant.