Understanding Generic Type in C#

Introduction

Before we start tampering around the code, let's understand why we need a generic type? Well in most of application development we come across lots of situation where we need a type which can hold both value types and reference type. In this situation we need a generic type which can do both. Before we start working on generic type, lets understand little about types in .Net as we know there are two fundamental categories of types.

1. Value types : structures,primitive type,enums.
2. Reference types : Classes,interface,arrays,strings etc.

So when you are using any one of the above types they are bonded to that particular type. For example if we declare a structure it bonds to value type and when we declare a class it bonds to reference type. Despite the fact that declaration syntax is same for both but semantics are distinct.  And in terms of memory allocation for value is on stack and where as for reference type is on run-time heap.

Assignment to a variable of value types creates a copy of the value.

Example

using System;

public class valTyp
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        Int32 I = 10, J = 0;
        J = I; // this will create a copy value I into J
        I++;
        Console.WriteLine("I value: {0}, J value {1}", I, J);
    }
}

Output

The assignment to the local variable J does not impact the local variable I because both local variables are of a value type (the type Integer) and each local variable of a value type has its own storage.

But Assignment to a variable of a reference type creates a copy of the reference, not a copy of the value being referenced let's see this with an example below.

Example

using System;

public class Cclass
{
    public int val = 0;
}

public class refTyp
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        Cclass ref1 = new Cclass();
        Cclass ref2 = ref1;
        ref2.val = 555;
        
        Console.WriteLine("Before increment Ref1 value: {0}, Ref2 value {1}", ref1.val, ref2.val);
        ref2.val++;
        Console.WriteLine("After increment Ref1 value: {0}, Ref2 value {1}", ref1.val, ref2.val);
    }
}

Output

In contrast with value type the assignment to reference type variable ref2.val = 555, affects the object that both ref1 and ref2 reference.

From above we see that value types and reference types are different. So to create a Generic type we need something which neither of them. In .net we have the root type Object (alias System.Object) is special in that it is neither a reference type nor a value type, and may not be instantiated. So a variable of type Object can either contain a value type or a reference type. Yes there is question, which arises in mind why Object class can handle both?

The answer is both reference and value types are derived from the base class Object. So using the concept Boxing and unboxing we can treat any type as an object. So what does boxing do, So where its necessary for a value type to behave like a object boxing is done which wrappers the value type to look like a reference object (allocated on heap), and the value type's value is copied into it. Then this complete wrapper is marked so that CLR knows that it contains a value type. Similarly the reverse process is called as unboxing.

Let's see a sample code using Object class as Generic type.

using System;

public class Myclass
{
    public string name = "Hello from Myclass";

    public void doSomething()
    {
        Console.WriteLine(name);
    }
}

public class ObjApp
{
    public static void CheckType(object o)
    {
        if (o is string)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("o is String");
            string s = (string)o;
            Console.WriteLine(s);
        }
        else if (o is Int32[])
        {
            Console.WriteLine("o is Int32 array");
            Int32[] ins = (Int32[])o;
            for (Int32 i = 0; i < ins.Length; i++)
                Console.WriteLine(ins[i]);
        }
        else if (o is Myclass)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("o is Myclass");
            Myclass a = (Myclass)o;
            a.doSomething();
        }
    }

    public static void Main()
    {
        // Create an array of Object references
        Object[] objs = new Object[3];
        objs[0] = "Some String"; // create a new string
        objs[1] = new Int32[] { 1, 2, 4 }; // create a new Int32 array
        objs[2] = new Myclass(); // create a new Object instance

        for (Int32 ind = 0; ind < 3; ind++)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Array index {0} refers to {1}", ind, objs[ind]);
            ObjApp.CheckType(objs[ind]);
        }
    }
}

Output

In the above program if you see Object class can take any type and in CheckType member function we are sending the generic type (Object) and using is operator we are checking the type which is passed as parameter to the function , Then using Boxing we can point to the specific type and use for further processing.