Question

If you want to create an empty IEnumerable of type T, you can create it using the static generic method

Enumerable.Empty<T>()

See here for more info.

Why did Microsoft go for this option instead of using a static method on the generic type ( as opposed to a generic static method on the non-generic type ) ?

This method could be used like this :

Enumerable<T>.Empty()

Which would then return an empty IEnumerable<T>.

In my opinion, the second option makes more sense since what I want to create is the generic IEnumerable<T>, not a non-generic IEnumerable.

Edit: typo

Answer 1

IEnumerable<T> is an interface.
Interfaces cannot contain static members.

The static method is actually on the Enumerable type, which is a non-generic static class.
Therefore, there is no Enumerable<T> generic class that could contain the method.

Static members on generic types should be avoided.
Extension methods cannot be placed in a generic type.
This is why the static Enumerable class is not generic.