Difference between collection and Generic in C#

chetan Allipur

9y21.5kLearn iOS Programming

Please tell me the difference between collection and Generic in C# with example

3 Replies

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Gnanavel Sekar9y ago
Both to handle the bulk of data at runtime for certain time. it's like database but it's not hold the data permanently.

Collection : You may use while knew the type of data-it's under using system.collections
Generic : It's represent delay the specification of type of data- it's under using system.collections.generic

When you want to handle repetative process within single function/class the best choice is generic..
We may tell as Collection is to Static and Generic is to Dynamic.

Generic-public class TestClass (here we can pass any types, only type enough while passing data/ creating object)
Collection-public class TestClass(here we pass only int, if we want to change datatype means we have to overwrite our code in all inner blocks of code)

Generic Example :

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
namespace GenericApp
{
public class TestClass
{
// define an Array of Generic type with length 5
T[] obj = new T[5];
int count = 0;
// adding items mechanism into generic type
public void Add(T item)
{
//checking length
if (count + 1 < 6)
{
obj[count] = item;
}
count++;
}
//indexer for foreach statement iteration
public T this[int index]
{
get { return obj[index]; }
set { obj[index] = value; }
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//instantiate generic with Integer
TestClass intObj = new TestClass(5);
//adding integer values into collection
intObj.Add(1);
intObj.Add(2);
intObj.Add(3); //No boxing
intObj.Add(4);
intObj.Add(5);
//displaying values
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine(intObj[i]); //No unboxing
}
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
}
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Bikesh Srivastava9y ago
Collection: Collection classes serve various purposes, such as allocating memory dynamically to elements and accessing a list of items on the basis of an index etc. These classes create collections of objects of the Object class, which is the base class for all data types in C#.

generic: Generics is a technique that enriches your programs in the following ways: It helps you to maximize code reuse, type safety, and performance. You can create genericcollection classes. The .NET Framework class library contains several new genericcollection classes in the System.Collections.Generic namespace.
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Vishal Prajapati9y ago
hello chetan,,please follow this link:
1)http://www.dotnettricks.com/learn/csharp/difference-between-generics-and-collections-with-example

2)http://www.codeguru.com/csharp/article.php/c19001/NET-Framework-Collections-and-Generics.htm
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