Returning ‘IList’ vs ‘ICollection’ vs ‘Collection’

by

ICollection<T> is an interface that exposes collection semantics such as Add(), Remove(), and Count.

Collection<T> is a concrete implementation of the ICollection<T> interface.

IList<T> is essentially an ICollection<T> with random order-based access.

In this case you should decide whether or not your results require list semantics such as order based indexing (then use IList<T>) or whether you just need to return an unordered “bag” of results (then use ICollection<T>).

More Related Contents:

  1. What’s Wrong with an ArrayList?
  2. Creating a blocking Queue in .NET?
  3. In C#, why can’t a List object be stored in a List variable
  4. Why isn’t there generic variance for classes in C# 4.0?
  5. How to create List of open generic type of class?
  6. What is the best way to clone/deep copy a .NET generic Dictionary?
  7. .NET HashTable Vs Dictionary – Can the Dictionary be as fast?
  8. C# Set collection?
  9. Making a generic property
  10. foreach vs someList.ForEach(){}
  11. Why cannot C# generics derive from one of the generic type parameters like they can in C++ templates? [duplicate]
  12. ReadOnlyCollection or IEnumerable for exposing member collections?
  13. How do I implement IEnumerable
  14. No type inference with generic extension method
  15. How do I make the return type of a method generic?
  16. Static Generic Class as Dictionary
  17. Does List guarantee insertion order?
  18. explicitly cast generic type parameters to any interface
  19. Anonymous Types – Are there any distingushing characteristics?
  20. .NET – Convert Generic Collection to DataTable
  21. C# Generic Type Inference With Multiple Types
  22. Why generic IList does not inherit non-generic IList
  23. Thread safe collections in .NET
  24. Declare a generic type instance dynamically [duplicate]
  25. T must be contravariantly valid
  26. List readonly with a private set
  27. Why doesn’t C# support implied generic types on class constructors?
  28. Implementing arithmetic in generics?
  29. How to get random values from array in C# [duplicate]
  30. generic NOT constraint where T : !IEnumerable

Leave a Comment