Is there a constraint that restricts my generic me

Question

Can anyone tell me if there is a way with generics to limit a generic type argument T to only:

• Int16
• Int32
• Int64
• UInt16
• UInt32
• UInt64

I'm aware of the where keyword, but can't find an interface for only these types,

Something like:

static bool IntegerFunction<T>(T value) where T : INumeric 

Answer 1

I would use a generic one which you could handle externaly...

/// <summary>
/// Generic object copy of the same type
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">The type of object to copy</typeparam>
/// <param name="ObjectSource">The source object to copy</param>
public T CopyObject<T>(T ObjectSource)
{
    T NewObject = System.Activator.CreateInstance<T>();

    foreach (PropertyInfo p in ObjectSource.GetType().GetProperties())
        NewObject.GetType().GetProperty(p.Name).SetValue(NewObject, p.GetValue(ObjectSource, null), null);

    return NewObject;
}

Answer 2

This limitation affected me when I tried to overload operators for generic types; since there was no "INumeric" constraint, and for a bevy of other reasons the good people on stackoverflow are happy to provide, operations cannot be defined on generic types.

I wanted something like

public struct Foo<T>
{
    public T Value{ get; private set; }

    public static Foo<T> operator +(Foo<T> LHS, Foo<T> RHS)
    {
        return new Foo<T> { Value = LHS.Value + RHS.Value; };
    }
}

I have worked around this issue using .net4 dynamic runtime typing.

public struct Foo<T>
{
    public T Value { get; private set; }

    public static Foo<T> operator +(Foo<T> LHS, Foo<T> RHS)
    {
        return new Foo<T> { Value = LHS.Value + (dynamic)RHS.Value };
    }
}

The two things about using dynamic are

1. Performance. All value types get boxed.
2. Runtime errors. You "beat" the compiler, but lose type safety. If the generic type doesn't have the operator defined, an exception will be thrown during execution.