Collections
In this section we will deal with C# collections.
What is a collection?
The .NET framework provides specialized classes which gives more flexible way to work with groups of objects - this is collection.
Types of Collections in .NET:
There are 2 types of collection in .NET,
- Non Generic Collections.
- Generic Collections.
So, The difference between them are:
Generic
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Non Generic
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Generic collections
are strongly typed.
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Non Generic
collections are not strongly typed,
unless they are specifically written to accept just a single type of data.
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Example: List<T>,
Dictionary<TKey, TValue>, SortedList<TKey, TValue>, Hashset<T>,
Queue<T>, Stack<T> etc.
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Example: ArrayList,
SortedList, Stack, Queue, Hashtable, BitArray etc.
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Generic collection
store elements internally in arrays of their actual types, so no boxing, unboxing or casting is required.
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Non Generic collection
store elements internally in ‘object’
arrays, which can store any types of data. That means in case of value types (ex:
int, float, double etc) they have to be boxed
first and then unboxed when you retrieve
them.
You will not face this
problem with reference types, but
still you have to cast them to
their actual type before you can use them.
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As we don’t require
boxing, unboxing or casting, so generic collections are much faster.
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As it requires boxing,
unboxing or casting, so they are slower
than generic collections.
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For more information on Non Generic collection visit: MSDN Link: System.Collection
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