CollectionT

CollectionT is a conceptual abstraction in programming that denotes a generic container designed to hold elements of a single type and to provide a common set of operations for interacting with those elements. It is used as an interface or type class to enable polymorphic use of different storage structures without tying code to a specific implementation.

In generic programming, CollectionT[T] represents a collection of elements of type T. Typical operations include add(T), remove(T), contains(T), size(), isEmpty(), and a means of iteration such as an iterator or a foreach construct. Some designs distinguish between mutable and immutable variants of CollectionT, reflecting different guarantees about state changes over time.

Design considerations for CollectionT include how it handles ordering, duplicates, and concurrency. Implementations may preserve insertion order, enforce uniqueness, or provide efficient random access. Type constraints may require elements to be comparable, serializable, or subject to other bounds. The balance between mutability, performance, and thread-safety often shapes the design of concrete collections that implement CollectionT.

Relation to other abstractions: CollectionT is a generalization that can serve as a common supertype for concrete containers such as ListT and SetT. It contrasts with more specialized abstractions like MapT, which pairs keys with values. In library and API design, defining a CollectionT helps unify access patterns across diverse data structures while preserving type safety.

History and usage: The term CollectionT is not universally standardized and appears mainly in textbooks, design discussions, or pseudocode illustrating generic collection principles rather than in formal language specifications. See also: collection interface, container, generic programming, iterators.