How can I write a generic anonymous method?

Question

Specifically, I want to write this:

public Func, T> SelectElement = list => list.First();

But I get a syntax error

Answer 1

You declared only the return type as generic.

Try this:

public Func, T> SelectionMethod() { return list => list.First(); }

The name of the thing you are declaring must include the type parameters for it to be a generic. The compiler supports only generic classes, and generic methods.

So, for a generic class you must have

class MyGeneric { 
   // You can use T here now
   public T MyField;
 }

Or, for methods

public T MyGenericMethod( /* Parameters */ ) { return T; }

You can use T as the return parameter, only if it was declared in the method name first.

Even though it looks like the return type is declared before the actual method, the compiler doesn't read it that way.