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Programming .NET Components, 2nd Edition
book

Programming .NET Components, 2nd Edition

by Juval Lowy
July 2005
Intermediate to advanced content levelIntermediate to advanced
644 pages
17h
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Programming .NET Components, 2nd Edition

What Are Generics?

Generics allow you to define type-safe classes without compromising type safety, performance, or productivity. You implement the server only once as a generic server, while at the same time you can declare and use it with any type. To do that, use the < and > brackets, enclosing a generic type parameter. For example, here is how you define and use a generic stack:

    public class Stack<T>
    {
       T[] m_Items;
       public void Push(T item)
       {...}
       public T Pop()
       {...}
    }
    Stack<int> stack = new Stack<int>();
    stack.Push(1);
    stack.Push(2);
    int number = stack.Pop();

Example D-2 shows the full implementation of the generic stack.

Example D-2. The generic stack

public class Stack<T>
{
   const int DefaultSize = 100;
   readonly int m_Size;
   int m_StackPointer = 0;
   T[] m_Items;

   public Stack() : this(DefaultSize)
   {}
   public Stack(int size)
   {
      m_Size = size;
      m_Items = new T[m_Size];
   }
   public void Push(T item)
   {
      if(m_StackPointer >= m_Size)
      {
         throw new StackOverflowException();
      }
      m_Items[m_StackPointer] = item;
      m_StackPointer++;
   }
   public T Pop()
   {
      m_StackPointer--;
      if(m_StackPointer >= 0)
      {
         return m_Items[m_StackPointer];
      }
      else
      {
         m_StackPointer = 0;
         throw new InvalidOperationException("Cannot pop an empty stack");
      }
   }
}

Example D-2 is the same as Example D-1, except that in Example D-2 every use of object has been replaced with T, and the Stack is defined using the generic type parameter T:

    public class Stack<T>
    {...}

When you use the generic stack, you have to instruct the compiler which type to ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596102070Supplemental ContentErrata Page