VB.NET Creating Classes, What is Public Class MyClass(Of Type) ?

Question

I'm still learning ASP.NET and I often see code like this throughout parts of our framework:

Public MustInherit Class DBFileManager(Of F As IDBFile, FC As IDBFileContent, FT As IDBFileThumb)

Can anybody tell me what this means? Much thanks!

Answer 1

Its a generic. That means a DBFileManager can be created that acts on 3 classes that implement the 3 named Interfaces

see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/w256ka79(VS.80).aspx for more information

Answer 2

To build on what @Jimmy said: It is also an Abstract Class, which means it acts as a base class - you can't use it directly, you must sub class it to use. That subclass must implement the 3 types in the class header.