Templates and Generics

Few days before I downloaded "Introduction to Generics - Part 1" video from LearnVisualStudio.NET. But it gave me impression that Generic is same as template as in C++. But after googling I found No, there are some differences.

Well, as far simple implementation concerns ... I can say similarity ... but if you go bit deeper ... there are much differences. However, there is no doubt that Generics are improved form of templates.

Generics and templates have a minor overlap in functionality. They both make it possible to create parameterized types which make it possible to create type safe collections

 	                        Generics	            Templates
Constraint mechanism	        Subtype constraints	      Lazy structural constraints
Allows explicit specialization	No	                      Yes
Allows partial specialization	No	                      Yes
Type identity of specialization	Globally unique	              Unique to each assembly
Cross language facility	        Yes	                       No
Allowed parameters	        Ref class, value class only    All types and non-type
Name lookup and binding	        At definition, to constraints  At specialization, to type

For further reading check out this