Generic interface
A generic interface is an interface declaration parameterized by one or more type parameters, defining a contract that can be specialized for particular types.
Go in Action, Second Edition
A generic interface is an interface parameterized by one or more type parameters whose implementations must match the resulting type-specific contract.
- How it is used
- Uses generic interfaces to give type-safe collection operations a reusable contract independent of a concrete data structure.
- How deep it goes
- Works through a linked-list implementation, indexed methods, and a function accepting the interface; also identifies assertion and method-set pitfalls.
- Examples
- Demonstrates List[T] through LinkedList[T], indexed operations, ReverseList, and an assertion from Collection[int] to *LinkedList[int].
- What you can do after
- Build it from scratch: implement a generic list contract and write functions that accept it without depending on its storage structure.
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Fabulous Adventures in Data Structures and Algorithms
A generic interface is an interface parameterized by one or more type parameters.
- How it is used
- Uses parameterized contracts to raise randomness and type-specific operations above concrete implementations.
- How deep it goes
- Builds distribution and visitor interfaces with implementations, then traces overload resolution and dispatch; it stops short of broader interface design.
- Examples
- Uses Random-backed discrete uniform distributions and expression-tree visitors returning a generic result type.
- What you can do after
- Build it from scratch as a C# contract, extend it through inheritance, and diagnose visitor dispatch when static types hide subtype-specific methods.
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Related concepts
- genericshas part · Generics are programming-language constructs that parameterize or generalize types and operations so they can apply to multiple concrete types or input forms.
- interfacekind of · A software interface is a contract or boundary that specifies the operations, properties, or capabilities through which types or components interact, without requiring a particular implementation.
- type assertionused by · A type assertion is a language construct that states or checks that a value has a specified type, with runtime behavior depending on the language.
- probability distributionimplements · A probability distribution is a mathematical specification assigning probabilities to the possible values or outcomes of a random variable, with total probability one.
- visitor design patternused by · The Visitor pattern separates operations on an object structure into visitor objects, allowing operations to be added without changing the structure’s element classes.
- type-generic macroused by · A type-generic macro is a macro-based interface whose expansion selects or adapts operations according to the types of its arguments or associated objects.
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