Professional .NET 2.0 Generics

14.3. Class Reference

This section focuses on providing a more detailed examination of the classes that make up the Power Collections library. The goal here is to hit on the key elements of each class and provide examples that exercise these concepts. This should give you a good feeling for how these types are used and address any general requirements that are associated with using these classes.

14.3.1. Algorithms

Whereas much of the focus of Power Collections is on supplying new data containers, it also includes support for a set of utility methods that are used to operate on collections. These helper methods, which are all implemented as static methods on the Algorithms class, provide developers with a natural home for all those general-purpose methods that are commonly used when working with generic containers.

You'll also notice that these Algorithms methods are not limited to working on just those collections that are part of the Power Collections library. Instead, these methods heavily leverage the interfaces from the BCL, which allows these algorithm methods to be applied to a much broader spectrum of data types. This also maximizes the interoperability between the BCL and Power Collections library, which was one of the key goals that influenced the overall vision for Power Collections library.Before digging into some of the mechanics of working with the Algorithms methods, let's take a high-level look at all the methods that are included in the Algorithms class. The ...