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Java - Generics: Generic Methods

Java generics allow programmers to write generic classes and methods that can work with different data types. Generic methods define type parameters that represent the types of the method arguments, while generic classes define type parameters that represent the types of objects stored in the class. Bounded type parameters allow restricting the types that can be passed to a generic method or class.

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66 views

Java - Generics: Generic Methods

Java generics allow programmers to write generic classes and methods that can work with different data types. Generic methods define type parameters that represent the types of the method arguments, while generic classes define type parameters that represent the types of objects stored in the class. Bounded type parameters allow restricting the types that can be passed to a generic method or class.

Uploaded by

Anand Dhanalakota
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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JAVA - GENERICS

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It would be nice if we could write a sing le sort method that could sort the elements in an Integ er array, a String array or an array of any type that supports ordering . Java Generic methods and g eneric classes enable prog rammers to specify, with a sing le method declaration, a set of related methods or, with a sing le class declaration, a set of related types, respectively. Generics also provide compile-time type safety that allows prog rammers to catch invalid types at compile time. Using Java Generic concept, we mig ht write a g eneric method for sorting an array of objects, then invoke the g eneric method with Integ er arrays, Double arrays, String arrays and so on, to sort the array elements.

Generic Methods:
You can write a sing le g eneric method declaration that can be called with arg uments of different types. Based on the types of the arg uments passed to the g eneric method, the compiler handles each method call appropriately. Following are the rules to define Generic Methods: All g eneric method declarations have a type parameter section delimited by ang le brackets (< and >) that precedes the method's return type ( < E > in the next example). Each type parameter section contains one or more type parameters separated by commas. A type parameter, also known as a type variable, is an identifier that specifies a g eneric type name. T he type parameters can be used to declare the return type and act as placeholders for the types of the arg uments passed to the g eneric method, which are known as actual type arg uments. A g eneric method's body is declared like that of any other method. Note that type parameters can represent only reference types, not primitive types (like int, double and char).

Example:
Following example illustrates how we can print array of different type using a sing le Generic method:
public class GenericMethodTest { // generic method printArray public static < E > void printArray( E[] inputArray ) { // Display array elements for ( E element : inputArray ){ System.out.printf( "%s ", element ); } System.out.println(); } public static void main( String args[] ) { // Create arrays of Integer, Double and Character Integer[] intArray = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 }; Double[] doubleArray = { 1.1, 2.2, 3.3, 4.4 }; Character[] charArray = { 'H', 'E', 'L', 'L', 'O' }; System.out.println( "Array integerArray contains:" ); printArray( intArray ); // pass an Integer array System.out.println( "\nArray doubleArray contains:" ); printArray( doubleArray ); // pass a Double array System.out.println( "\nArray characterArray contains:" ); printArray( charArray ); // pass a Character array } }

T his would produce the following result:


Array integerArray contains: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Array doubleArray contains: 1.1 2.2 3.3 4.4 Array characterArray contains: H E L L O

Bounded Type Parameters:


T here may be times when you'll want to restrict the kinds of types that are allowed to be passed to a type parameter. For example, a method that operates on numbers mig ht only want to accept instances of Number or its subclasses. T his is what bounded type parameters are for. T o declare a bounded type parameter, list the type parameter's name, followed by the extends keyword, followed by its upper bound.

Example:
Following example illustrates how extends is used in a g eneral sense to mean either "extends" (as in classes) or "implements" (as in interfaces). T his example is Generic method to return the larg est of three Comparable objects:
public class MaximumTest { // determines the largest of three Comparable objects public static <T extends Comparable<T>> T maximum(T x, T y, T z) { T max = x; // assume x is initially the largest if ( y.compareTo( max ) > 0 ){ max = y; // y is the largest so far } if ( z.compareTo( max ) > 0 ){ max = z; // z is the largest now } return max; // returns the largest object } public static void main( String args[] ) { System.out.printf( "Max of %d, %d and %d is %d\n\n", 3, 4, 5, maximum( 3, 4, 5 ) ); System.out.printf( "Maxm of %.1f,%.1f and %.1f is %.1f\n\n", 6.6, 8.8, 7.7, maximum( 6.6, 8.8, 7.7 ) ); System.out.printf( "Max of %s, %s and %s is %s\n","pear", "apple", "orange", maximum( "pear", "apple", "orange" ) ); } }

T his would produce the following result:


Maximum of 3, 4 and 5 is 5 Maximum of 6.6, 8.8 and 7.7 is 8.8 Maximum of pear, apple and orange is pear

Generic Classes:
A g eneric class declaration looks like a non-g eneric class declaration, except that the class name is followed by a type parameter section. As with g eneric methods, the type parameter section of a g eneric class can have one or more type parameters

separated by commas. T hese classes are known as parameterized classes or parameterized types because they accept one or more parameters.

Example:
Following example illustrates how we can define a g eneric class:
public class Box<T> { private T t; public void add(T t) { this.t = t; } public T get() { return t; } public static void main(String[] args) { Box<Integer> integerBox = new Box<Integer>(); Box<String> stringBox = new Box<String>(); integerBox.add(new Integer(10)); stringBox.add(new String("Hello World")); System.out.printf("Integer Value :%d\n\n", integerBox.get()); System.out.printf("String Value :%s\n", stringBox.get()); } }

T his would produce the following result:


Integer Value :10 String Value :Hello World

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