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copied!<p>In practice the terminology doesn't really matter much - I can't remember the last time I had to worry about it <em>except</em> when trying to write about it.</p> <ul> <li>An <em>unbound</em> type has no type arguments specified</li> <li>A <em>constructed</em> type has at least one type argument specified</li> <li>A type parameter is an <em>open type</em></li> <li>An array type where the element type is open is an <em>open type</em></li> <li>An <em>open</em> constructed type has at least one type argument which is an open type</li> <li>A <em>closed</em> type is any type which isn't open</li> </ul> <p>(There are further rules for nested types. Consult the C# 3.0 spec section 4.4 for gory details.)</p> <p>As an example of an open constructed type, consider:</p> <pre><code>public class NameDictionary<T> : Dictionary<string, T> </code></pre> <p>The base class of <code>typeof(NameDictionary<>)</code> is:</p> <ul> <li>Constructed because it specifies type arguments</li> <li>Open because the second type argument (<code>T</code>) is an open type</li> </ul> <p>The MSDN docs for <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.type.isgenerictype.aspx" rel="noreferrer"><code>Type.IsGenericType</code></a> have quite a useful little table.</p> <p>Just to reiterate, this is almost entirely unimportant in day to day use.</p> <p>I'm generally in favour of knowing the correct terminology - particularly for things like "pass by reference" etc - but in this case it really, really doesn't come up very often. I would like to actively discourage you from worrying about it :)</p>

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