How do you provide a default type for generics?

Asked 2009-07-08T17:24:36.027

I have a class that currently has several methods that take integer parameters. These integers map to operations that the application can perform. I'd like to make the class generic so that the consumers of the class can provide an enum type that they have with all the operations in it, then the methods will take parameters of that enum type. However, I want them to be able to not specify a generic type at all, and have it default back to integers with no change in syntax from the current way. Is this possible?

c# .net generics .net-2.0

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So... why not use simple inheritance? Like:

class MyGenericClass<T>
{
}

class MyGenericClass : MyGenericClass<int>
{
}

This way you can write both ways:

var X = new MyGenericClass<string>();
var Y = new MyGenericClass(); // Is now MyGenericClass<int>

answered 2009-07-08T18:00:04.647

How do you provide a default type for generics?

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