CHAPTER 9 COLLECTIONS AND GENERICS
The Role of Generic Type Parameters
You can find generic classes, interfaces, structures, and delegates throughout the .NET base class
libraries, and these might be part of any .NET namespace. Also be very aware that generics have far more
uses then simply defining a collection class. To be sure, you will see many different generics used in the
remainder of this book for various reasons.
Note Only classes, structures, interfaces, and delegates can be written generically; enum types cannot.
When you see a generic item listed in the .NET Framework documentation or the Visual Studio
object browser, you will notice a pair of angled brackets with a letter or other token sandwiched within.
Figure 9-1 shows the Visual Studio object browser displaying a number of generic items located within
the System.Collections.Generic namespace, including the highlighted List class.
Figure 9-1. Generic items supporting type parameters
334