What are all of the generic collections/types in the 4.0 .NET Framework?

Question

Is there an exhaustive list of all of the "base" (not used in an object-oriented sense but more in a common sense) generic types in the 4.0 .NET Framework? I have found this list that I often send newer/mid-level devs to so they can understand how non-generic types map to generic types, but this is by no means exhaustive. I'm looking for something that also includes things such as KeyValuePair<>, Tuple<>, and other basic generics that may not be very-well known. Interfaces such as IObservable<> would be nice but not necessarily required.

Maybe we could write all the generics we suppose useful as answers below? And you would generate list of types from answers? — The Smallest, Nov 29 '10 at 21:16
Unfortunately, what you're asking for needs to be better defined. `KeyValuePair<>` and `Tuple<>` aren't collection types (though `KeyValuePair` is closely associated with `Dictionary<>`). `IObservable` is also not a collection interface, though `ObservableCollection` does make use of it. Do you want types like `IQueryable`, which don't represent a collection but a repository (of undefined size) that you can run queries against? — Adam Robinson, Nov 29 '10 at 21:30

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

Here's a powershell fragment to list all the generic types in the system assemblies

[AppDomain]::CurrentDomain.GetAssemblies() | 
    ? { $_.FullName -match "^System" -or $_.FullName -match "mscorlib"} |  
        % { $_.GetTypes() | ? { $_.ContainsGenericParameters } }

This could be adapted to give a more comprehensive list. If you load powershell w/ a .Net 4 config, you'll get the 4.0 list.

Count Name                      
----- ----                      
    1 System.Xml
   12 System.Data
   67 System
  187 mscorlib
  325 System.Core

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 29 '10 at 21:29

4

In Visual Studio open the object explorer, choose .NET 4 Framework, search for IEnumerable<T> and expand the list of derived types. It's way too much to paste here :-).

alt text

answered Nov 29 '10 at 21:29

VVS

19,405
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score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 29 '10 at 21:27

3

You could reflect on all the BCL assemblies and use the IsGenericType method to get a list of generic types.

answered Nov 29 '10 at 21:27

SpeksETC

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score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 29 '10 at 21:17

2

You can find this in the System.Collections.Generic namespace http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.collections.generic.aspx

answered Nov 29 '10 at 21:17

Shiv Kumar

9,599
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It is not full, there are other types and interfaces like IQueryable in other namespaces and assemblies. – The Smallest Nov 29 '10 at 21:20

Will Marcouiller · Answer 5 · 2010-11-30T12:51:06.497

This should give you some answers:

The System.Collections.Generic namespace provides most of the generic collections that we already know from .NET 3.5. There was already providing three thread-safe collections:

The System.Collections.Concurrent namespace namespace provides thread-safe generic collections.

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 29 '10 at 21:36

Here's my code. Add more assemblies as you desire.

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Assembly[] assemblies = new Assembly[] { 
            typeof(string).Assembly,
            typeof(Uri).Assembly, 
            typeof(System.Linq.Enumerable).Assembly};

        List<string> final = new List<string>();

        Debug.WriteLine("Checked assemblies: ");
        foreach (Assembly assembly in assemblies)
        {
            Debug.WriteLine(assembly.FullName);

            Type[] types = assembly.GetTypes();
            IEnumerable<Type> genericTypes = types.Where(t => t.IsGenericType && t.IsPublic);
            foreach (Type t in genericTypes)
            {
                final.Add(t.FullName);
            }
        }

        final.Sort();

        Debug.WriteLine("Generic classes: ");
        foreach (string s in final)
        {
            Debug.WriteLine(s);
        }
    }

Results:

Checked assemblies:
mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089
System, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089
System.Core, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089
Generic classes:
System.Action`1
System.Action`10
System.Action`11
System.Action`12
System.Action`13
System.Action`14
System.Action`15
System.Action`16
System.Action`2
System.Action`3
System.Action`4
System.Action`5
System.Action`6
System.Action`7
System.Action`8
System.Action`9
System.ArraySegment`1
System.Collections.Concurrent.BlockingCollection`1
System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurrentBag`1
System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurrentDictionary`2
System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurrentQueue`1
System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurrentStack`1
System.Collections.Concurrent.IProducerConsumerCollection`1
System.Collections.Concurrent.OrderablePartitioner`1
System.Collections.Concurrent.Partitioner`1
System.Collections.Generic.Comparer`1
System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2
System.Collections.Generic.EqualityComparer`1
System.Collections.Generic.HashSet`1
System.Collections.Generic.ICollection`1
System.Collections.Generic.IComparer`1
System.Collections.Generic.IDictionary`2
System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1
System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerator`1
System.Collections.Generic.IEqualityComparer`1
System.Collections.Generic.IList`1
System.Collections.Generic.ISet`1
System.Collections.Generic.KeyValuePair`2
System.Collections.Generic.LinkedList`1
System.Collections.Generic.LinkedListNode`1
System.Collections.Generic.List`1
System.Collections.Generic.Queue`1
System.Collections.Generic.SortedDictionary`2
System.Collections.Generic.SortedList`2
System.Collections.Generic.SortedSet`1
System.Collections.Generic.Stack`1
System.Collections.ObjectModel.Collection`1
System.Collections.ObjectModel.KeyedCollection`2
System.Collections.ObjectModel.ObservableCollection`1
System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection`1
System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyObservableCollection`1
System.Comparison`1
System.ComponentModel.BindingList`1
System.Converter`2
System.EventHandler`1
System.Func`1
System.Func`10
System.Func`11
System.Func`12
System.Func`13
System.Func`14
System.Func`15
System.Func`16
System.Func`17
System.Func`2
System.Func`3
System.Func`4
System.Func`5
System.Func`6
System.Func`7
System.Func`8
System.Func`9
System.IComparable`1
System.IEquatable`1
System.IObservable`1
System.IObserver`1
System.Lazy`1
System.Linq.EnumerableExecutor`1
System.Linq.EnumerableQuery`1
System.Linq.Expressions.Expression`1
System.Linq.IGrouping`2
System.Linq.ILookup`2
System.Linq.IOrderedEnumerable`1
System.Linq.IOrderedQueryable`1
System.Linq.IQueryable`1
System.Linq.Lookup`2
System.Linq.OrderedParallelQuery`1
System.Linq.ParallelQuery`1
System.Nullable`1
System.Predicate`1
System.Runtime.CompilerServices.CallSite`1
System.Runtime.CompilerServices.ConditionalWeakTable`2
System.Runtime.CompilerServices.ReadOnlyCollectionBuilder`1
System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuleCache`1
System.Runtime.CompilerServices.StrongBox`1
System.Security.AccessControl.AccessRule`1
System.Security.AccessControl.AuditRule`1
System.Security.AccessControl.ObjectSecurity`1
System.Threading.Tasks.Task`1
System.Threading.Tasks.TaskCompletionSource`1
System.Threading.Tasks.TaskFactory`1
System.Threading.ThreadLocal`1
System.Tuple`1
System.Tuple`2
System.Tuple`3
System.Tuple`4
System.Tuple`5
System.Tuple`6
System.Tuple`7
System.Tuple`8

What are all of the generic collections/types in the 4.0 .NET Framework?

6 Answers6