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Java Generics FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions

This is a collection of answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about Java Generics, a new language feature added to the Java programming language in version 5.0 of the Java Standard Edition (J2SE 5.0).

If you want to provide feedback or have any questions regarding Java generics, to which you cannot find an answer in this document, feel free to send me EMAIL or use the GENERICS FAQ form.
A printable version of the FAQ documents is available in PDF format (4.5MB).

Java Generics FAQs - Frequently Asked Questions

About This FAQ

© Copyright  2004-2022 by Angelika Langer.  All Rights Reserved.
How is this FAQ organized at large?
How are the individual answered questions organized?
Whom is the FAQ for?
How do I best read the FAQ - top-to-bottom or zig-zag?
Whom do I contact when I have questions, comments or suggestions related to this FAQ?

Table Of Contents
Acknowledgements
Change Log
Copyright Notice

How is this FAQ organized at large?

The FAQ has 4 major sections:  "Fundamentals of Java Generics"  explains the very basics of Java generics, what generics are and what their purpose and benefit is. 

"Language Features of Java Generics" is a huge section that explains all language features of Java Generics: 

This section can be seen as the theoretical foundation and lays the ground for understanding more practical and more advanced issues. 

"Practicalities - Programming With Java Generics" aims to address issues that arise when you use Java Generics in practice.  It discusses topics such as "How do I design a generics API?" , "Should my class be generic or not?", "What happens when I mix generic and non-generic Java?", "Why is class Class generic and what is this good for?".  The focus is on programming techniques on the one hand and pitfalls and surprises on the other hand.  It is likely that this section will grow over time as programming idioms and techniques using Java Generics will be discovered. 

"Technicalities - Under the Hood of the Compiler" addresses more advanced and more esoteric aspects of Java Generics, which will become the more interesting the more you learn about Java Generics.  Some of these topics are typically of little interest when you begin using generics. For instance, the section explains what the notorious "unchecked" warnings are, what translation by type erasure is, what wildcard capture and type inference are, what the type system looks like now that it includes generic types, and how overload resolution works in presence of generic methods. 

In addition to these four main sections the FAQ has a Table Of Contents , a reference to More Information on Java Generics such as tutorials, books, articles, and websites, a Glossary , and an alphabetic Index .

LINK TO THIS Preface.FAQ001
REFERENCES

How are the individual answered questions organized?

There is a question, a short answer and a sometimes fairly long answer, plus a cross reference section. 

I've found that many readers underestimate the reference section - to their own detriment.  The cross references refer to related items and point in particular to entries that explain terms or facts mentioned in the text, but not explained there.  In other words, if there is something in the explanation that has not been explained yet, go to the reference section and see whether you can find a reference to a corresponding entry that explains it.  If not, let me know.

LINK TO THIS Preface.FAQ002
REFERENCES

Whom is the FAQ for?

For practicing Java programmers who have to do with Java Generics.
First a disclaimer: the FAQ does not aim to be mainly a tutorial.  Tutorials can be found elsewhere.  It has tutorial style answers, but it goes beyond what a casual or first-time generics user might want to know about Java Generics.  On the other hand, it is still written for humans, as opposed to compiler builders or computer science theorists whose pet issue is type theory.  While type theory is an interesting topic, the main target audience is programmers who use or want to use generics in practice. 

The FAQ is supposed to grow and mature over time.  In particular the section on programming techniques using generics will hopefully gain weight as the body of experience with Java generics grows.  If you have a technique or observation made in practice that you want to share with other programmers, feel free to send email and suggest it for inclusion in the FAQ. 

LINK TO THIS Preface.FAQ003
REFERENCES Where can I find a generics tutorial?
Whom do I contact when I have questions, comments or suggestions related to this FAQ?

How do I best read the FAQ - top-to-bottom or zig-zag?

Both should be possible.
The FAQ is kind of organized in a way that you can read it sequentially, starting with the first question until the bitter end.  However, you will find that occasional jumps back and forth will be inevitable. 

For instance, when the language features are explained the term type erasure will be mentioned.  Type erasure is part of what the compiler does during compilation and it is discussed in detail in the Technicalities section.  So you will probably jump forward to the explanation of type erasure to see what it is in principle, spare yourself the details, and return to the language feature from which you started your excursion to the Technicalities section. 

Beyond that, the FAQ is mainly intended as a reference and can be consulted any order you feel like.  Related topics are grouped together so that it might be convenient to read certain sections that are of immediate interest and ignore the rest for the time being. 

You might find that the same fact is explained repeatedly in different entries.  This is intended. A certain amount of redundency is inevitable in order to make it possible to use the FAQ as a reference.  If you feel you already know this, skip it and move on. 

Also, if you use the FAQ as a reference, the table of contents and the index should help finding what you are looking for.  If not, let me know.

LINK TO THIS Preface.FAQ004
REFERENCES Table Of Contents
Index
Whom do I contact when I have questions, comments or suggestions related to this FAQ?

Whom do I contact when I have questions, comments or suggestions related to this FAQ?

If you want to provide feedback or have questions regarding Java generics, to which you cannot find an answer in this document, feel free to send me EMAIL or use the GENERICS FAQ form.  I might not be capable of answering in a timely manner or perhaps not at all, but I will try.
LINK TO THIS Preface.FAQ005
REFERENCES



Table Of Contents

About This FAQ

Fundamentals of Java Generics

Language Features of Java Generics

Generic Types
Fundamentals
Concrete Instantiations
Raw Types
Wildcard Instantiations
Generic Methods
Fundamentals
Type Parameters Type Arguments
Fundamentals
Wildcards
Wildcard Bounds


Practicalities - Programming With Java Generics

Using Generic Types
Using Generic Methods
Coping With Legacy
Defining Generic Types and Methods
Designing Generic Methods
Working With Generic Interfaces
Implementing Infrastructure Methods
Using Runtime Type Information
Reflection


Technicalities - Under the Hood of the Compiler


More Information on Java Generics

Glossary

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Index
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

About This FAQ
How is this FAQ organized at large?
How are the individual answered questions organized?
Whom is the FAQ for?
How do I best read the FAQ - top-to-bottom or zig-zag?
Whom do I contact when I have questions, comments or suggestions related to this FAQ?
Fundamentals of Java Generics
What are Java generics?
What is the primary purpose of Java generics?
What is the benefit of using Java generics?
What does type-safety mean?
Language Features of Java Generics
Practicalities - Programming With Java Generics

Technicalities - Under the Hood of the Compiler
More Information on Java Generics
Where can I find a generics tutorial?
Where can I find a specification of the Java generics language features?
Which books cover Java generics?
What webpages are devoted to Java generics?
Glossary 
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Index
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Acknowledgements

The FAQ is written and maintained by Angelika Langer

Klaus Kreft, Bruce Eckel and Cay Horstmann reviewed this FAQ and provided invaluable feedback. 

A number of individuals at (or formerly at) Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) patiently answered countless questions I posed regarding Java generics.  My thanks to Gilad Bracha, Neal Gafter, and Peter von der Ahé. 

Suggestions and corrections, that inspired changes in this FAQ, have been provided by the following people (in alphabetic order): Eric Armstrong, Richard Grin, Markus Keller, Richard Kennard, Sascha Kratky, Keith Lea, Mike Lehmann, Maurice Naftalin, Joe Soroka, Frank Tip, Phil Wadler.


 

Change Log

Below is a list of minor and major modifications of the FAQ. 
 
October 2004
First release.
January 2005
Terminology change. 

A reader pointed out that the draft of JLS 3 uses terms different from what I use in this FAQ document.  This is because I started writing the FAQ before even a draft of JLS 3 was available. There still is no final specification of the language features of Java Generics.  Nonetheless I decided to reduce the mismatch somewhat by changing some of the terms used throughout this document. 

The most significant deviation from the JLS 3 terminology is the use of the term "parameterized type".  The JLS uses the term "parameterized type" to refer to types with a type argument list, such as List<String> or List<?> . I used the term "parameterized type" to distinguish between types with type parameters, such as List , which is a type that declares a type parameter E that stands for the type of the elements in the list, and plain old types without type parameters, such as String , Date , Point , etc.  Hence I made the following change: 
 
 
formerly used in this FAQ => now used in this FAQ (and in JLS 3)
parameterized type/method => generic type/method
instantiation of a parameterized type  => parameterized type

There remains an issue regarding use of the term "instantiation".  The term "instantiation" is used in the JLS in conjunction with object creation:  a type is instantiated to form an instance of the type, that is, an object of that type.  I reuse the term "instantiation" to refer to the "creation" of a parameterized type from a generic type, that is, for the manifestation of a generic type such as List with its formal type parameter E as a parameterized type with an actual type argument as in List<String> or List<?> .  This can be regarded as misleading, because nothing is created, not even a new type, different from what happens in C++ for instance when a template is instantiated. Yet I could not think of a more precise or adequate term that would denote the fact that formal type parameters are replaced by actual type arguments in a generic type or method.  In other words, I "instantiate" generic types to form parameterized types, and I talk of "instantiations" of a generic type, which are the parameterized type, as opposed to "instances" of a type, which would be objects, like in the JLS.

May 2005 
Updated the reference section; since April 19, 2005 the Java Language Specification, 3rd edition is available on the web at: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/
August 2005 
Corrected a couple of bugs. Affected are TypeArguments.FAQ103 , TypeArguments.FAQ104 , TechnicalDetails.FAQ501 , TechnicalDetails.FAQ502 , ProgrammingIdioms.FAQ201 , ProgrammingIdioms.FAQ303
Added some new items: ProgrammingIdioms.FAQ006A , ProgrammingIdioms.FAQ050 , ProgrammingIdioms.FAQ302A thru ProgrammingIdioms.FAQ302C , TechnicalDetails.FAQ050 , TechnicalDetails.FAQ051

Added a glossary in order to get the terminology straight.  I noticed that documents originating from Sun Microsystems, such as the language specification ( JLS 3 ) and the tutorial , use slightly different terms than you will find in books and articles from other sources. The glossary aims to list commonly used terms related to Java Generics and to explain what they denote and which ones are synonyms.  The controversial terms are invocation/instantiation of generic/parameterized types/methods.  The JLS talks of an invocation of a generic type or method, where most other authors talk of an instantiation of a generic type or method.  Some authors equate generic type and parameterized type, while the JLS equates invocation and parameterized type. 

October 2005 
Added some stuff on overloading and overriding in the context of Java generics. The new items are: ProgrammingIdioms.FAQ051 and TechnicalDetails.FAQ801 thru TechnicalDetails.FAQ830
Further additions: ProgrammingIdioms.FAQ103A , ProgrammingIdioms.FAQ201A , ProgrammingIdioms.FAQ300 , TechnicalDetails.FAQ007 , TechnicalDetails.FAQ402A , TechnicalDetails.FAQ609
December 2005 
Added new item: TypeParameters.FAQ107
Made available a PDF version of this FAQ document.
May 2006
Added new item: ProgrammingIdioms.FAQ205
November 2006 
Added an additional example to item ProgrammingIdioms.FAQ300 .  My thanks to Peter von der Ahé and Bob Lee for supplying the example.
December 2006
Added whole new section on Java Generics and Reflection: ProgrammingIdioms.Reflection
Corrected a mistake in entry TechnicalDetails.FAQ821 . My thanks to Jingyi Wang for spotting the mistake.
May 2007
Corrected some typos.  My thanks to Oleksii Shurubura and Zhang Xu for spotting the bugs.
Added new item describing the "getThis" trick: ProgrammingIdioms.FAQ206
October 2007
Corrected some typos.  My thanks to Steven Adams and Seb Rose for spotting the bugs.
February 2008
Corrected some typos.  My thanks to Liu Yuqing for spotting the bugs.
German speaking readers might be interested in a series of articles that I made available at EffectiveJava .The articles are drafts of contributions to our "Effective Java" column published in a German print magazine in 2007.
March 2008
Corrected some typos.  My thanks to Marcel Rüedi for spotting the bugs.
April 2008
Replaced an incorrect example in TypeParameters.FAQ402 by a more useful one and corrected a bug in TypeParameters.FAQ105 . My thanks to Jürgen Jäschke and Martin Goerg for spotting the bugs.
July 2008
Corrected some typos.  My thanks to Rob Ross for spotting the bugs.
Added some links and bookmarks to the PDF version of this FAQ document for better navigation. It is not perfect, but I hope it helps.
August 2008
Added a link and an additional example to Practicalities.FAQ603 . My thanks to Dan Frankowski for suggesting the addition.
Rewrote Technicalities.FAQ402A because the compilers nowadays apply smarter type inference strategies than they did when the entry was written; as a result some of the source code examples were no longer meaningful. My thanks to Steven Busack for bringing the changes to my attention. 
Added two new entries Practicalities.FAQ207 and Practicalities.FAQ208 that describe a programming technique that Jesse Glick brought to my attention.  Kudos to Jesse.
October 2008
Corrected some typos.  My thanks to Gary Gregory for spotting the bugs.
August 2009
Corrected some typos.  My thanks to Ganesh Hegde and Barry Soroka for spotting the bugs.
June 2010
Corrected bugs in Technicalities.FAQ103 and Technicalities.FAQ608 .  My thanks to Clive Scott for spotting the bugs.
August 2010
Made an update to acknowledge additions and corrections intended for release with Java 7. Specifically, I added a couple of entries regarding the problem with varargs and generics, an explanation of the new varargs warning, and whether or not one can safely suppress the varargs warnings (see Practicalities.FAQ300A ). In addition, I added a section on the diamond operator, the improved type inference for instance creation expressions and its limitations (see Technicalities.FAQ400 ).  My thanks to Maurizio Cimadamore of Oracle for a couple of clarifications. 
Corrected a typo.  My thanks to Prasanth Jalasutram for spotting the typo.
May 2011
Corrected minor omission in Technicalities.FAQ824 .  My thanks to Gene Carpenter for spotting the omission.
August 2011
Made a couple of minor adjustments in Practicalities.FAQ300A , Practicalities.FAQ300B , and Practicalities.FAQ300C due to differences between the prototype implementation and the final release of Java 7.  Specifically, the annotation @SuppressWarnings("varargs") has been replaced by the @SafeVarargs annotation and the "varargs" warnings became plain "unchecked" warnings.
February 2012
Corrected some formatting and grammar issues.  My thanks to Chris Dailey and Alan Frankel for spotting the deficiencies.
November 2012
Updated the section on related information such as books and websites (see Information.FAQ002 and InformationFAQ005 ).
February 2013 
Corrected an error in Technicalities.FAQ400D regarding use of the diamond operator on anonymous inner classes. My thanks to Rabea Gransberger for spotting the bug.
April 2013 
Updated the sections related to type parameter inference for invocation of generic methods and the diamond operator.  Type inference has been changed and improved substantially for Java 8.  Numerous situations that resulted in error messages in Java  5, 6, and 7 compile just fine in Java 8.  The changes concern Technicalities.FAQ400C , Technicalities.FAQ400D , Technicalities.FAQ403 , Technicalities.FAQ405 .
Updated entry TypeParameters.FAQ107 for clarification.  The entry discusses the lack of lower bounds on type parameters, i.e., a feature that does not (yet) exist, but is occasionally considered useful for certain situations. I added examples in order to illustrate when the feature would be harmful or useful.
February 2014
Fixed an incorrect example in TypeParameters.FAQ102 . My thanks to Dheeru Mundluru for spotting the bug.
August 2014 
A couple of corrections suggested by Moez AbdelGawad.
January 2015
Type inference was slightly modified in Java 8 which affected the example in Technicalities.FAQ404 .  My thanks to Chad Berchek for bringing it to my attention and to Dan Smith of Oracle for explaining the type inference modification to me.
March 2015
Fixed a couple of typos in Technicalities.FAQ823 . My thanks to José María García Varona for spotting the glitches.
February 2016
Updated some sections to reflects language changes in Java 9: 
  • The diamond operator is permitted in anonymous class definitions ( Technicalities.FAQ400B ).
  • The @SafeVarags annotation is permitted on private instance methods ( Practicalities.FAQ300B ).
  • August 2016
    Uploaded a bunch of missing diagrams.  My thanks to Xavier Tarrago for spotting the omission on my website.
    April 2017
    Added a missing topic in the table of contents.  My thanks to Dan Fabulich for spotting the omission.
    August 2017
    Fixed a typo ( Practicalities.FAQ501 ). My thanks to Satrajit Acharyya for spotting it.
    October 2017
    Fixed a typo ( Technicalities.FAQ604 ). My thanks to Alessio Gaspar for spotting it.
    August 2018
    Fixed a misleading example ( TypeArguments.FAQ203 ). My thanks to Rishabh Gupta for bringing it to my attention.
    Oktober 2018
    Fixed a typo ( GenericTypes.FAQ104A ). My thanks to Rinat Akhmetov for spotting it.
    May 2021
    Fixed a typo ( TypeArguments.FAQ201 ). My thanks to Kent Hervey for spotting it.

     

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