Programming Microsoft® Visual C#® 2005: The Language

Chapter 6. Generics

In this chapter:

Generic Types

Generic Methods

Constraints

Casting

Inheritance

Static Members

Enumerators

The definition of generic, as found in the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, is "adj. of a whole genus, kind, class, etc.; general; inclusive." Based on this definition, a person is generic, whereas Donis Marshall is quite specific. A city is generic, whereas Seattle is specific. For developers, a data algorithm is generic, whereas the implementation is specific. A stack is generic, whereas a stack of integers is specific. A spreadsheet is generic, whereas a spreadsheet of strings is specific. To lesser extent, general abstractions can use generic implementation. An arithmetic class is generic, whereas integer calculations ...