Generics using comparisons

Question

I have a class in C# where I would like to implement methods to do operations in generics array. For example, I would like to get the maximum component value from a generic array. In my case, it would be enough to consider just numeric types (int, long, double...)

public class NumericCalculation<T> where T : IComparable<T>
{
    public static T getMax (T[] array)
    {
        T maxValue = default(T);
        if ( array.Length > 0) {
            maxValue = array[0];                 
            for (int i = 0; i < array.Length; i++) {
                if (array[i] > maxValue)
                {
                    maxValue = array[i];
                }
            }            
        }
        return maxValue;
    }
}

But this returns the error : "Error 2 Operator '>' cannot be applied to operands of type 'T' and 'T'"

Is there an interface that I am skipping or something? Is possible to do this generic method to generic arrays of numbers?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Sounds like you just want:

return array.DefaultIfEmpty().Max();

But to answer your specific question, you can use CompareTo, which is a member of the IComparable<T> interface that you have constrained the array element-type to:

if(array[i].CompareTo(maxValue) > 0) { ... }

But personally, I would use Comparer<T>.Default instead as it handles null references better. This isn't all that important in your case as you are only interested in primitive numeric value-types (all structs):

if(Comparer<T>.Default.Compare(array[i], maxValue) > 0) { ... }