Core Java, Volume I Fundamentals, 11th Edition

Chapter 8Generic Programming

In this chapter

• 8.1 Why Generic Programming?

• 8.2 Defining a Simple Generic Class

• 8.3 Generic Methods

• 8.4 Bounds for Type Variables

• 8.5 Generic Code and the Virtual Machine

• 8.6 Restrictions and Limitations

• 8.7 Inheritance Rules for Generic Types

• 8.8 Wildcard Types

• 8.9 Reflection and Generics

Generic classes and methods have type parameters. This allows them to describe precisely what should happen when they are instantiated with specific types. Prior to generic classes, programmers had to use the Object for writing code that works with multiple types. This was both cumbersome and unsafe.

With the introduction of generics, Java has an expressive type system that allows designers to describe in detail how types of ...