Class Library Reference


System.Collections.Generic Namespace
The System.Collections.Generic namespace contains interfaces and classes that define generic collections, which allow users to create strongly typed collections that provide better type safety and performance than non-generic strongly typed collections.
Classes
 ClassDescription
Public classComparerProvides a base class for implementations of the IComparer generic interface.
Public classDictionaryRepresents a collection of keys and values.
Public classDictionary.KeyCollectionRepresents the collection of keys in a Dictionary. This class cannot be inherited.
Public classDictionary.ValueCollectionRepresents the collection of values in a Dictionary. This class cannot be inherited.
Public classEqualityComparerProvides a base class for implementations of the IEqualityComparer generic interface.
Public classKeyedByTypeCollectionProvides a collection whose items are types that serve as keys.
Public classKeyNotFoundExceptionThe exception that is thrown when the key specified for accessing an element in a collection does not match any key in the collection.
Public classLinkedListRepresents a doubly linked list.
Public classLinkedListNodeRepresents a node in a LinkedList. This class cannot be inherited.
Public classListRepresents a strongly typed list of objects that can be accessed by index. Provides methods to search, sort, and manipulate lists.
Public classQueueRepresents a first-in, first-out collection of objects.
Public classSortedDictionaryRepresents a collection of key/value pairs that are sorted on the key.
Public classSortedDictionary.KeyCollectionRepresents the collection of keys in a SortedDictionary. This class cannot be inherited.
Public classSortedDictionary.ValueCollectionRepresents the collection of values in a SortedDictionary. This class cannot be inherited
Public classSortedListRepresents a collection of key/value pairs that are sorted by key based on the associated IComparer implementation.
Public classStackRepresents a variable size last-in-first-out (LIFO) collection of instances of the same arbitrary type.
Public classSynchronizedCollectionProvides a thread-safe collection that contains objects of a type specified by the generic parameter as elements.
Public classSynchronizedKeyedCollectionProvides a thread-safe collection that contains objects of a type specified by a generic parameter and that are grouped by keys.
Public classSynchronizedReadOnlyCollection 
Interfaces
 InterfaceDescription
Public interfaceICollectionDefines methods to manipulate generic collections.
Public interfaceIComparerDefines a method that a type implements to compare two objects.
Public interfaceIDictionaryRepresents a generic collection of key/value pairs.
Public interfaceIEnumerableExposes the enumerator, which supports a simple iteration over a collection of a specified type.
Public interfaceIEnumeratorSupports a simple iteration over a generic collection.
Public interfaceIEqualityComparerDefines methods to support the comparison of objects for equality.
Public interfaceIListRepresents a collection of objects that can be individually accessed by index.
Structures
 StructureDescription
Public structureDictionary.EnumeratorEnumerates the elements of a Dictionary.
Public structureDictionary.KeyCollection.EnumeratorEnumerates the elements of a Dictionary.KeyCollection.
Public structureDictionary.ValueCollection.EnumeratorEnumerates the elements of a Dictionary.ValueCollection.
Public structureKeyValuePairDefines a key/value pair that can be set or retrieved.
Public structureLinkedList.EnumeratorEnumerates the elements of a LinkedList.
Public structureList.EnumeratorEnumerates the elements of a List.
Public structureQueue.EnumeratorEnumerates the elements of a Queue.
Public structureSortedDictionary.EnumeratorEnumerates the elements of a SortedDictionary.
Public structureSortedDictionary.KeyCollection.EnumeratorEnumerates the elements of a SortedDictionary.KeyCollection.
Public structureSortedDictionary.ValueCollection.EnumeratorEnumerates the elements of a SortedDictionary.ValueCollection.
Public structureStack.EnumeratorEnumerates the elements of a Stack.
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Community Content

supoch14
Some general guidance on the generics collections

I wrote an article on this topic some time ago and I still think it's pretty good. You can find the full article here; I've included the introduction and resources below for your convenience.

Six Questions about Generics and Performance


Here are some comments from a recent discussion on Generics that I thought were generally useful. The comments have been edited so that they fit better with the general format of a Q&A session. The origin of this discussion was some commentary on the cost associated with creating instances of generic types where the type parameter is a value-type -- that case is interesting because the code for those classes cannot be shared like it can for reference types, so there can be considerable cost associated with their use.

As always many of these questions would require whole tomes to answer fully, so I'm giving an answer that's brief but only approximately correct. For additional information on Generics please see these links:

http://blogs.msdn.com/kcwalina/archive/2004/03/15/89860.aspx
http://www.15seconds.com/issue/031024.htm
http://research.microsoft.com/projects/clrgen/generics.pdf

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