A Simple Way to Learn Generics

Sridhar Sharma

C#Generics FunctionC# Generics FunctionGenerics Basics

17 Comments

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Subash10y ago
Great Job
Atul Rawat11y ago
nice article shridhar
- Sridhar Sharma11y ago
  Thanks Atul :)
Santhakumar Munuswamy11y ago
Good One
- Sridhar Sharma11y ago
  Thanks SanthaKumar :)
jimmy raj11y ago
good article..nicely explained.
- Sridhar Sharma11y ago
  Thanks Jimmy :)
Ajay Gandhi11y ago
Good Article
- Sridhar Sharma11y ago
  Thanks Ajay :)
Manas Mohapatra11y ago
Good one
- Sridhar Sharma11y ago
  Thanks Manas :)
Rajeesh Menoth11y ago
Good One
- Sridhar Sharma11y ago
  Thanks Rajeesh :)
Sibeesh Venu11y ago
Nice Share
- Sridhar Sharma11y ago
  Thanks Sibeesh :)
Upendra Pratap Shahi11y ago
nice share..
- Sridhar Sharma11y ago
  Thanks Upendra :)

What are Generics?

Generics is a mechanism offered by the Common Language Runtime (CLR) and programming languages that provide one form of code re-use and algorithm re-use.

Advantages of Generics

Type Safe
Better Performance

Let us see how we can implement Generics in our code.

I’ve created a class MyGenericSample which has a method ShowMessage that takes two parameters of which one is a Known Type string argument and another being a generic type mentioned as T. Remember defining it in <> before you use.

public void ShowMessage<T>(string msg, T value) //Passed two arguments where msg is Known Type and value as Generic Type
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", msg, value);
}

I’ve overloaded ShowMessage method with three parameters of which one is a Known Type string argument and another two being generic types mentioned as Type1 and Type2.

public void ShowMessage<Type1, Type2>(string msg, Type1 firstParameter, Type2 secondParameter) //Passed three arguments where msg is Known Type and Type1, Type2 as Generic Types
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1} {2}", msg, firstParameter, secondParameter);
}

Now let’s see how they behave when they are called.

static void Main(string[] args)
{
MyGenericSample sample = new MyGenericSample();
sample.ShowMessage < int > ("My Pincode", 500068); //Note: Declare the type of value we are going to send as Generic Type in <>
sample.ShowMessage < string > ("My City", "Hyderabad");
sample.ShowMessage < char > ("Gender", 'M');
//Calling a Generic Method With Various Parameter Types
sample.ShowMessage < string, string > ("Full Name", "Sridhar", "Sharma");
Console.ReadLine();
}

Complete code

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace GenericsSample
{
public class MyGenericSample
{
public void ShowMessage < T > (string msg, T value) //Passed two arguments where msg is Known Type and value as Generic Type
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1}", msg, value);
}
public void ShowMessage < Type1, Type2 > (string msg, Type1 firstParameter, Type2 secondParameter) //Passed three arguments where msg is Known Type and Type1, Type2 as Generic Types
{
Console.WriteLine("{0}: {1} {2}", msg, firstParameter, secondParameter);
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
MyGenericSample sample = new MyGenericSample();
sample.ShowMessage < int > ("My Pincode", 500068); //Note: Declare the type of value we are going to send as Generic Type in <>
sample.ShowMessage < string > ("My City", "Hyderabad");
sample.ShowMessage < char > ("Gender", 'M');
//Calling a Generic Method With Various Parameter Types
sample.ShowMessage < string, string > ("Full Name", "Sridhar", "Sharma");
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}

Output

basics of generics

Conclusion

Generics makes the life of developers easy, since they offer Type Safe and there is a performance increase compared with non-generic types.