Vietnam National University of HCMC

International University
School of Computer Science and Engineering

Generic Classes and Methods

(IT069IU)

Nguyen Trung Ky

📧 [email protected]

🌐 it.hcmiu.edu.vn/user/ntky
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Previously,
- Polymorphism
- Method overriding and overloading in Inheritance
- Zoo Example
- Company Payroll Example
- Abstraction
- Abstract Class
- Abstract Method
- Why we need abstract class
- Examples:
- Zoo Example
- Company Payroll Example
- Interface
- Interface in real life examples
- Upgrade Company Payroll with Invoices Example
- Abstract vs Interface
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Agenda’s today
- Generic
- Generic Method
- Generic Class
- Bounded type parameters

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When does it start?

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When does it start?

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 Generic
What problem does it solve?

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The Problem

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Generic
- Introduce type parameters for classes and methods, which are symbols can
be substituted for any concrete type.
- The benefit is to eliminate the need to create multiple versions of methods
or classes for various data types.

-> Use one version for all reference data types.

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Generic Methods

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This is the old way where we haven’t
learn about generic method where
we have to create a different
overloading methods with similar
bodies to handle different data types.
This is beyond ugly and repetitive!
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Motivation for Generic Methods
- Overloaded methods are often used to perform similar operations
on different types of data.
- Study each printArray method.
- Note that the array element type appears in each method’s
header and for-statement header.
- If we were to replace the element types in each method with a
generic name—T (type parameter) by convention—then all three
methods would look like the one.

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Conventions

● Type parameter meaning

○ E: Element type in a collection

○ K: Key type in a map

○ V: Value type in a map

○ T: General type

○ S, U: Additional general types

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Implementing a Generic Methods
• Generic methods are methods that introduce their own type parameters.

• The type parameter's scope is limited to the method where it is declared.

• The syntax for a generic method includes a type parameter, inside angle
brackets, and appears before the method's return type.

public <T> void printArray( T[] inputArray )

{
//body
} // end method printArray
Quiz 1
- Try to solve this Generic problem in Java on HackerRank website:
https://www.hackerrank.com/challenges/java-generics/problem?isFullScreen=true

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With generic methods, we
can use only method to
handle different type of
data types instead of
creating many overloaded
method! Amazing!
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Generic Class

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Generic Classes
A Generic class simply means that the items or functions in
that class can be generalized with the parameter (example T)
to specify that we can add any type as a parameter in place of
T like Integer, Character, String, Double or any other user-
defined type.

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To create object/instance of Generic class

- Create a new generic class with a type placeholder T:

public class ClassName <T>{

…
}

- Use that generic class to create an object from it and specific what datatype
will be replace T.

ClassName <Type> objectName = new ClassName <Type>();

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Simple Generic Class Example

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Another Example of Generic Class

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Single Type Vs Multiple Type Parameters

Single Type Parameter

Multiple Type Parameter

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 Bounded Type
Parameters

Limit the type parameters to specific group of subclass!

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Problem

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Solve it with Bound Type Parameters

Output:

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Bounded Type Parameters
By using the keyword “extends”,
we can force the type parameters
to have the requirement to be a
subclass of that super class. Like in
this example, the MyNumberClass
can only take subclasses types of
the superclass Number!

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Bounded Type Parameters: Using wildcards
Object

The ? stands for an unknown type

? extends Type : a bounded wildcard. Type is upper bound
? super Type : a bounded wildcard. Type is lower bound
Wildcards

• The question mark (?), called the wildcard, represents an

unknown type.
• The wildcard can be used in a variety of situations: as the
type of a parameter, field, or local variable.
Wildcards Demo.
Advantages of Java Generics

1. Type-Safety: One can hold only a single type of objects in generics.

2. Type Casting Is Not Required: There is no need to typecast.

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Advantages of Java Generics

3. Compile -Time Checking: It checks all the errors of datatype related

to generics at the time of compile-time so the issue will not occur at
the time of runtime.

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Recap
- Generic
- Generic Class
- Bounded type parameters
- Generic Method

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Thank you for your listening!

“Motivation is what gets you started.

Habit is what keeps you going!”
Jim Ryun

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