When two programming elements share the same name, one of them can hide, or shadow, the other one. In such a situation, the shadowed element is not available for reference; instead, when your code uses the shared name, the Visual Basic compiler resolves it to the shadowing element.Reju
Shadowing is either through scope or through inheritance.
Shadowing through inheritance is hiding a method of a base class and providing a new implementation for the same. This is the default when a derived class writes an implementation of a method of base class which is not declared as overridable in the base class. This also serves the purpose of protecting an implementation of a new method against subsequent addition of a method with the same name in the base class.
'shadows' keyword is recommended although not necessary since it is the default.
while surfing i got very accurate and valid defination.Shadowing :- This is a VB.Net Concept by which you can provide a new implementation for the base class member without overriding the member. You can shadow a base class member in the derived class by using the keyword "Shadows". The method signature,access level and return type of the shadowed member can be completely different than the base class member.Hiding : - This is a C# Concept by which you can provide a new implementation for the base class member without overriding the member. You can hide a base class member in the derived class by using the keyword "new". The method signature,access level and return type of the hidden member has to be same as the base class member.Comparing the three :-1) The access level , signature and the return type can only be changed when you are shadowing with VB.NET. Hiding and overriding demands the these parameters as same.2) The difference lies when you call the derived class object with a base class variable.In class of overriding although you assign a derived class object to base class variable it will call the derived class function. In case of shadowing or hiding the base class function will be called.http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/OSH.asp
The programming techniuqe of replacing a member of a base class with a new member in a derived class.Shadowing differs from overriding in that base class's shadowed member is no longer available from the derived class
