Common Type System—Generics

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Common Type System Type Systems Intro § Types and Objects § Generics § Basics, Terminology§ Constraints § Further Reading §

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© 2006 Wiley Publishing Inc.

Generics

As of the CLR 2.0, a new feature called generics permits programmers to employ parametric polymorphism in the code they write. This term simply means that code can be written to deal generally with instances whose types aren’t known when compiling the code itself yet can be instantiated by users of that code to work with precise types. The feature is a close cousin to C++ templates—with deceivingly similar syntax—but not quite as powerful, cumbersome, and problematic.