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Member of System.Collections.Specialized

Meaning in Life

BitVector32

A simple structure that stores Boolean values and

small integers in 32 bits of memory.

CollectionsUtil

Creates collections that ignore the case in strings.

HybridDictionary

Implements IDictionary by using a

ListDictionary while the collection is small, and

then switching to a Hashtable when the collection

gets large.

ListDictionary

Implements IDictionary using a singly linked list.

Recommended for collections that typically

contain ten items or fewer.

NameValueCollection

Represents a sorted collection of associated

String keys and String values that can be

accessed either with the key or with the index.

StringCollection

Represents a collection of strings.

StringDictionary

Implements a hashtable with the key strongly

typed to be a string rather than an object.

StringEnumerator

Supports a simple iteration over a

StringCollection.

Now that you have had a chance to examine some of the basic collection types within the

System.Collections (and System.Collections.Specialized) namespace, you might be surprised

when I tell you that these types are basically regarded as 

legacy types that should not be used for

new project developments for .NET 2.0 or higher. The reason is not because these types are some-

how dangerous, but due to the fact that they suffer from performance issues and a lack of type

safety.

New projects should ignore these legacy container types in favor of related types in the

System.Collections.Generic namespace. However, before we examine how to make use of generic

types, it is very helpful to understand exactly what problems generics intend to solve in the first

place. To begin, we must examine the role of boxing and unboxing.