Microsoft® Visual Basic® 2010 Developer’s Handbook

Chapter 17. Developing with Generics

In this chapter:
Introduction
Solution Approaches
Standardizing the Code Base of a Type by Using Generics
Constraints

Introduction

Generics are not new to Microsoft Visual Basic 2010; they’ve been around since Visual Basic 2005. Generics are a way to create a single code base that can accommodate many different types, and they are an invaluable tool for developing robust applications. Many of the classes you use every day are based on generics—whether those are Nullables, generic collections such as List(Of T) or Collection(Of T), or generic delegates like Action(Of T), Function(Of T), or Tuple(Of T). They’re also a central component of Microsoft Language-Integrated Query (LINQ), a querying technology that ...