Generics

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Objectives
Learn how to create generic classes and methods Understand the advantages and benefits of generics Explore the use of generics to sort and search in arrays See how to use generic interfaces and constraints Explore the generic List class
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Agenda
Introducing Generics Generics and Arrays Generic Interfaces Generic Constraints Generics and Lists

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Introducing Generics
You should strive for code reuse
Dont write the same code repeatedly
o

Put the code in a method and call the method repeatedly Put the methods in a class and use the class repeatedly

Dont define the same methods repeatedly

o

Make your code as generic as possible

Dont write ten methods to handle ten different types
o

Write one method that can handle multiple types

Prior to Visual Studio 2005 you would use overloaded methods or use objects
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Generic Methods
Create a generic method that will perform the same task for multiple data types Use a type parameter to declare a generic class or method Made possible with type parameters
Placeholder for a specific data type Calling code decides, at runtime, what type it will pass to the method Prohibits you from mixing data types
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Generic Classes
Generic class has similar behavior to a generic method, but at the class instance level Each call to a method of the class must use the same data type Declare the class with a type parameter but not the methods

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Advantages of Generics
Type-safety
Compiler enforces the requirement that you use a specific data type

Better performance
No converting from objects to specific types

Less code
Write a generic method once and pass to it any data type

More flexible code

Passing a different data type does not require new code
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Agenda
Introducing Generics Generics and Arrays Generic Interfaces Generic Constraints Generics and Lists

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Generics and Arrays

Arrays are a handy way to store a group of related items
Easily add or remove an item Array class provides methods for sorting and searching

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Sorting Arrays
You can easily sort an array of simple data types By default, you cant sort an array of class instances
To sort an array, items must all be of the same type, and that type must implement IComparable and provide a CompareTo method If the type does not implement IComparable, or if an array contains multiple types, the sort fails at runtime
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Sorting with the IComparer Interface

You can pass to Array.Sort an instance of a class that implements IComparer You need to provide a method named Compare that compares two instances of the same type

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Sorting with Generic Comparisons

Create a method that compares
Accepts two parameters of the same type, matching the type of data stored in the array Returns an integer value, representing the comparison of the two parameters

Pass the address of the method to Array.Sort No need to implement IComparer

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Searching with Generic Predicates

Array.IndexOf returns an index of first occurrence of a value in an array
Works fine for simple data types but not for complex data types

Create a method that defines a set of criteria and determines whether an object meets those criteria Pass the address of the method to Array.FindIndex
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Agenda
Introducing Generics Generics and Arrays Generic Interfaces Generic Constraints Generics and Lists

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Generic Interfaces
Implement IComparable in your custom classes
You can sort the class using default Array.Sort

Use the generic version of IComparable to avoid the boxing and unboxing issues

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Agenda
Introducing Generics Generics and Arrays Generic Interfaces Generic Constraints Generics and Lists

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Generic Constraints
Use generic constraints to ensure that parameters meet conditions
e.g., can only pass to a method type that implements IComparable

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Agenda
Introducing Generics Generics and Arrays Generic Interfaces Generic Constraints Generics and Lists

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Generics and Lists

Classes can account for one-to-many relationships
Customers have Orders

Create an Orders property in Customer class and store instances of the Order class Can use an ArrayList
ArrayList stores objects

Use generic List class instead

Similar capabilities as ArrayList plus type-safety and better performance
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Learn More!
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