Chapter 2. Generics 2.1 Using Type-Safe Lists
In pre-Tiger versions of Java, the method signature for add() in List looked like this:
public boolean add(Object obj);In Tiger, though, things have changed:
public boolean add(E o);
Before you go looking up E in Javadoc, though, it's just a placeholder. It indicates that this method declares a type variable (E) and can be parameterized. The entire List class is generic:
public interface List<E> extends Collection, Iterable {
There's that
E again. When
you supply a type in the initialization of a
List, you
parameterize the type—you indicate what type its parameters can accept:
List<String> onlyStrings = new LinkedList<String>();
One way to understand this is to imagine that the compiler replaces every occurrence of E with the type you supplied—in this case, a String. Of course, this is just done for this particular instance of List. You can have multiple Lists, all with different types, and all in the same program block.
2.2 Using Type-Safe Maps
You use it just as you use List, but with two types (key-vaule) at declaration and initialization.
2.3 Iterating Over Parameterized Types
List<String> listOfStrings = new LinkedList<String>();
listOfStrings.add("Happy");
listOfStrings.add("Birthday");
listOfStrings.add("To");
listOfStrings.add("You");
for (Iterator<String> i = listOfStrings.iterator(); i.hasNext();) 
{
String s = i.next();
out.println(s);
} You should always pair your
Iterators with your collections like this—if the collection is parameterized, the
Iterator should use the same parameter.
2.4 Accepting Parameterized Types as Arguments
private void printListOfStrings(List<String> list, PrintStream out)
throws IOException {
for (Iterator<String> i = list.iterator(); i.hasNext();) {
out.println(i.next());
}
} This allows your method body to act on that parameterization, avoiding class casts and the like.
2.5 Returning Parameterized Types
private List<String> getListOfStrings() {
List<String> list = new LinkedList<String>();
list.add("Hello");
list.add("World");
list.add("How");
list.add("Are");
list.add("You?");
return list;
} 2.6 Using Parameterized Types as Type Parameters The
Map interface takes two type parameters: one for the key, and one for the value itself. While the key is usually a
String or numeric ID, the value can be anything—including a generic type, like a
List of
Strings.
So List<String> becomes a parameterized type, which can be supplied to the Map declaration:
Map<String, List<String>> map = new HashMap<String, List<String>>();
If that's not enough angle brackets for you, here's yet another layer of generics to add into the mix:
Map<String, List<List<int[]>>> map = getWeirdMap(); Of course, where things get really nuts is actually accessing objects from this collection:
int value = map.get(someKey).get(0).get(0)[0];
2.7 Checking for Lint
neglect
2.8 Generics and Type Conversions
The key in casting generic types is to understand that as with normal, non-generic types, they form a hierarchy. What's unique about generics, though, is that the hierarchy is based on the base type, not the parameters to that type. For example, consider this declaration:
LinkedList<Float> floatList = new LinkedList<Float>(); The conversion is based on
LinkedList,
not Float. So this is legal:
List<Float> moreFloats = floatList; However, the following is not:
LinkedList<Number> numberList = floatList; While
Float is indeed a subclass of
Number, it's the generic type that is important, not the parameter type.
The second concept you'll want to grasp is
erasure. Generics in Tiger is a compile-time process, and all typing information is handled at
compiletime. Once the classes are compiled, the typing information is erased (thus the term erasure).
You can also use erasure
to break type-safety. Remember that at runtime, erasure removes
all your parameterization. This means that when you access parameterized types with reflection, you get the effects of erasure, at compile-time
2.9 Using Type WildcardsStill, here are times when you really
do want a plain old
List, or
Map, or whatever, without parameterization. This is going to result in unchecked errors, unless you employ the generics wildcard.
public void printList(List<?> list, PrintStream out) throws IOException {
for (Iterator<?> i = list.iterator(); i.hasNext(); ) {
out.println(i.next().toString());
}
} ...using
List<Object> to get around this same problem? You might want to review
Generics and Type Conversions, and see if you really want to do that. A
List<Integer> cannot be passed to a method that takes a
List<Object>, remember? So your
printList( ) method would be limited to collections defined as
List<Object>, which isn't much use at all. In these cases, the wildcard really is the only viable solution.
2.10 Writing Generic Types
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
public class Box<T> {
protected List<T> contents;
public Box() {
contents = new ArrayList<T>();
}
public int getSize() {
return contents.size();
}
public boolean isEmpty() {
return (contents.size() == 0);
}
public void add(T o) {
contents.add(o);
}
public T grab() {
if (!isEmpty()) {
return contents.remove(0);
} else
return null;
}
} Just as you've seen in Tiger's pre-defined generic types, a single letter is used as the representative for a type parameter.
You create a new instance of this type exactly as you might expect:
Box<String> box = new Box<String>();
This effectively replaces all the occurrences of T with String for that specific instance, and suddenly you've got yourself a String Box, so to speak.
2.11 Restricting Type Parameters
This is pretty simple—you can actually insert an extends className onto your type variable, and voila! Check out:
import java.util.Iterator;
public class NumberBox<N extends Number> extends Box<N> {
public NumberBox() {
super();
}
// Sum everything in the box
public double sum() {
double total = 0;
for (Iterator<N> i = contents.iterator(); i.hasNext();) {
total = total + i.next().doubleValue();
}
return total;
}
} The only types allowed here are extensions of the class
Number (or
Number itself).
You can use this same syntax in method definitions:
public static double sum(Box<? extends Number> box1,
Box<? extends Number> box2) {
double total = 0;
for (Iterator<? extends Number> i = box1.contents.iterator(); i
.hasNext();) {
total = total + i.next().doubleValue();
}
for (Iterator<? extends Number> i = box2.contents.iterator(); i
.hasNext();) {
total = total + i.next().doubleValue();
}
return total;
} This starts to get a little weird, I realize, but them's the breaks. It gets worse because you have to use the wildcard indicator, and then repeat the expression (
? extends Number) in the method body. One way to clean this up is to declare your own type variable inline (and make your syntax even odder):
public static <A extends Number> double sum(Box<A> box1, Box<A> box2) {
double total = 0;
for (Iterator<A> i = box1.contents.iterator(); i.hasNext();) {
total = total + i.next().doubleValue();
}
for (Iterator<A> i = box2.contents.iterator(); i.hasNext();) {
total = total + i.next().doubleValue();
}
return total;
} The portion of the method declaration right before the return value,
<A extends Number>, provides a typing variable which is then used throughout the method declaration and body.