I'm new in Java, and I have seen a ArrayList example like this.
listing = new ArrayList<Lot>();
I know that if I want to create an empty array list. Then I will use ArrayList()
But I don't understand what is the <Lot> between the "ArrayList" and "()".
Can someone explain it to me?
Thanks
This is Java Generics. The <Lot> indicates that the ArrayList will contain only objects of type Lot. It is useful because the compiler can do type checking on your ArrayList.
It is called as type parameter. It denotes that ArrayList will only contain objects of type Lot
Check out concept of Generics.
You will get the use of this ArrayList<Lot> with this example :
// (a)Without Generics ....
List myIntList = new ArrayList(); // 1
myIntList.add(new Lot(0)); // 2
Lot x = (Lot) myIntList.iterator().next(); // 3
// (b)With Generics ....
List<Lot> myIntList = new ArrayList<Lot>(); // 1’
myIntList.add(new Lot(0)); // 2’
Lot x = myIntList.iterator().next(); // 3
Two points to be noted in the above e.g
In e.g(b), Since we already specified that ArrayList will contain only objects of type Lot, in Line 3, we didn't have to perform casting it to type object Lot. This is because the compiler already know that it will have only Lot type of objects.
Trying to add any other type of object to e.g (b) will result in compile time error. This is because the compiler has already identified this List is specific to contain elements of only type Lot. This is called type checking
It is an extension to Java's type system called, Generics.
Generics allow you to create a List that contains a specific sub-type of Objects (or a specific set of Objects that implement particular interfaces, instead of a collection that only holds plain Objects.
listing = new ArrayList<Lot>();
this line just says that the type of objects to be inserted,updated,retrieved in or from ArrayList are of the type Lot.
This is what is called the generics in java.
Using the generics type casting is not required at the time of retrieval of objects from any List.
Related
I came across the following code, a simple example of adding elements to List
List list = new ArrayList<Integer>();
ListIterator<Integer> litr = null;
list.add("A");
list.add("1");
list.add(5);
litr = list.listIterator();
while(litr.hasNext()){
System.out.println("UIterating " + litr.next());
}
I expected it to throw an ClassCastException, but rather it wrote this to the console
A
1
5
which looks weird. When i tried:
List<Integer> list = new ArrayList<Integer>();
I got a compile time error.
I would be grateful if someone could explain how the String objects are added to the ArrayList
You assigned the new ArrayList to an untyped List. Generic type restrictions don't apply to an untyped List, it will let you put whatever you want in it. The compiler does not keep track that your untyped List refers to something that was declared with a generic type.
In any case this wouldn't produce a ClassCastException, generics only affect compilation. At runtime
The case where you put the type on the list variable:
List<Integer> list = new ArrayList<Integer>();
is preferred, it should generate a compiler error telling you you're putting the wrong type in the collection.
There's a description of how legacy, non-generic code and generic code interoperate in this article:
In proper generic code, Collection would always be accompanied by a type parameter. When a generic type like Collection is used without a type parameter, it's called a raw type.
Most people's first instinct is that Collection really means Collection<Object>. However, as we saw earlier, it isn't safe to pass a Collection<Part> in a place where a Collection<Object> is required. It's more accurate to say that the type Collection denotes a collection of some unknown type, just like Collection<?>.
But wait, that can't be right either! Consider the call to getParts(), which returns a Collection. This is then assigned to k, which is a Collection<Part>. If the result of the call is a Collection<?>, the assignment would be an error.
In reality, the assignment is legal, but it generates an unchecked warning. The warning is needed, because the fact is that the compiler can't guarantee its correctness. We have no way of checking the legacy code in getAssembly() to ensure that indeed the collection being returned is a collection of Parts. The type used in the code is Collection, and one could legally insert all kinds of objects into such a collection.
So, shouldn't this be an error? Theoretically speaking, yes; but practically speaking, if generic code is going to call legacy code, this has to be allowed. It's up to you, the programmer, to satisfy yourself that in this case, the assignment is safe because the contract of getAssembly() says it returns a collection of Parts, even though the type signature doesn't show this.
This is possible because of how generics are implemented in Java - using type erasure, and because Java supports raw types for backward compatibility with old versions of Java (1.4 and older).
Generics only exist in your source code. The compiler uses them to check the types at compile-time, but then throws away the generics. At runtime, a List<Integer> is just a List of objects, and it doesn't know that it's a list that should contain only Integer objects.
Java supports the use of raw types such as List instead of List<Integer> for backward compatibility with old versions. When you use a raw type, as you are doing in your code above, you get a compiler warning. You should not use raw types in new code - only ever use them when you need to deal with old code that you can't change.
The combination of raw types and type erasure allows you to put types of objects in lists that you shouldn't be putting in there.
Because the List at runtime doesn't know anything about the type that its elements are supposed to have, it doesn't check anything so you will not get a ClassCastException.
recently I read a piece of code which seems weird to me. As we know, we need to initialize the generic type in collections when we need to use them. Also, we know Collections can contain Collections as their elements.
The code:
public class Solution {
public static void main(String args[]) {
ArrayList res = returnlist();
System.out.print(res.get(0));
}
public static ArrayList<ArrayList<Integer>> returnlist() {
ArrayList result = new ArrayList();
ArrayList<Integer> content = new ArrayList<Integer>();
content.add(1);
result.add(content);
return result;
}}
My question is
why can we use ArrayList result = new ArrayList(); to create an object, since we have not gave the collection the actual type of element.
why can we use result.add(content); to add a collection to a collection with collection "result" is just a plain collection. We have not defined it as a ArrayList of ArrayList
Java generic collections are not stored with a type to ensure backwards compatibility with pre J2SE 5.0. Type information is removed when added to a generic collection. This is called Type Erasure.
This means that a generic collection can be assigned to a non generic reference and objects in a generic typed collection can be placed in an non generic, nontyped collection.
All Java generics really does is make sure you can't add the wrong type to a generic list and saves you from doing an explicit cast on retrieval; even though it is still done implicitly.
Further to this
the Java section of this answer goes a little deeper into what I just said
this article also covers basically what you were asking in a more complete way
other things to watch out for with Type Erasure
Just adding up to provide summarized answer
Old way :
(A) ArrayList result = new ArrayList();
will create an Arraylist to hold "Object"
New Way :
ArrayList<Integer> content = new ArrayList<Integer>();
this represents an Arraylist which will hold "Integer" objects. This was introduced for compile-time type check purposes.
why ?
Consider the first case. Its input type is Object. We know that Object is the super class of all classes. We can pass in an Integer object, String object and so on. When fetching the data the developer has to perform proper type casting. Say if the developer initially thinks the code will accept Integer objects so he adds the following typecast while fetching the data
Integer integer=(Integer) content.get(0);
This is supposed to work. But if mistakenly he passes a String it will result in run-time error.
How it can be avoided ?
By introducing compile time checks
How it works ?
when we specify parameterized type only Integer objects can be added to the ArrayList collection. Else it will show error.
content.add(3); // will work
content.add("HARSHAD"); // error shown
If parameterized generic types are for type checking purposes how correct data can be retrieved from the list ?
The compiler implicitly performs type conversion. See the sample code
List<Integer> list=new ArrayList<Integer>();
list.add(1);
list.add(2);
Integer integer=list.get(0);
System.out.println(integer);
What the compiler actually does when you perform compilation ?
//perform type erasure
(B) List list=new ArrayList();
list.add(1);
list.add(2);
// the arraylist inturn accepts Object when you run the code
//add casting
Integer integer=(Integer)list.get(0);
Conclusion
If you see the codes (A) and (B) both are the same. Only difference is that in the second case the compiler implicitly does the same operation.
Finally to answer your question ...
ArrayList result = new ArrayList();
is allowed for backward compatibility purposes. Although this is not recommended.
Official link from Oracle docs explaining the same concept.
Generics were added to Java only in Java 5. Before that, when you use a collection, it always meant collection of objects. The old syntax is left as is for backward compatibility. So ArrayList result = new ArrayList() is actually creating an ArrayList<Object>. Since ArrayList is also an object, you can add content to the variable result.
why can we use ArrayList result = new ArrayList(); to create an object, since we have not give the collection the actual type of element.
Because java wants to it backward compatible. Generics is more of compiler feature for ensure type safety, collections can store any type of object at runtime.
Java compiler will not give you compiler error for this but it must have given you compiler warning that it is unsafe to use generic classes without type.
It may be a remnant from before generics came along to java (Java 4 or 5 I think).
Can someone please explain what the difference between ArrayList<?>, ArrayList and ArrayList<Object> is, and when to use each? Are they all same or does each have some different meaning at the implementation level?
ArrayList<Object> is specifically a list of Objects whereas ArrayList<?> is a list whose concrete type we are unsure of (meaning we can't add anything to the list except null). You would use the latter when the list's type is irrelevant, e.g. when the operation you want to perform does not depend on the type of the list. For instance:
public static boolean isBigEnough(ArrayList<?> list) {
return list.size() > 42;
}
This is all covered in the generics tutorial (see the wildcards section).
Finally, ArrayList with no type parameter is the raw type: the only reason it's even allowed is for backwards compatibility with Java versions under 5, and you should refrain from using it whenever possible.
ArrayList<?> means "an ArrayList instance containing a type which is to be determined"
ArrayList is the class of an ArrayList
An ArrayList<Object> means an instance of ArrayList containing Object types.
This looks like it could be a good write-up on this (and more): http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/generics/types.html
I am wondering why did they design the toArray method in ArrayList to take a input of an array in Java?
ArrayList<String> listArray = new ArrayList<String>();
listArray.add("Germany");
listArray.add("Holland");
listArray.add("Sweden");
String []strArray = new String[3];
String[] a = (String [])listArray.toArray(strArray);
To me it appears that, they dont need this input because the instance of the ArrayList itself has enough details to convert the data into an array.
My question is why do they still need the array to be passed in? Thanks.
Two reasons I can think of:
Erasure means that the generic parameters aren't available at runtime, so an ArrayList<String> doesn't know that it contains strings, it's just the raw type ArrayList. Thus all invocations of toArray() would have to return an Object[], which isn't strictly correct. You'd have to actually create a second array of String[] then iterate over the first, casting all of its parameters in turn to come out with the desired result type.
The way the method is defined means that you can pass in a reference to an existing array, and have this populated via the method. In some cases this is likely very convenient, rather than having a new array returned and then copying its values elsewhere.
In your code, the ArrayList can contain anything, not only Strings. You could rewrite the code to:
ArrayList<String> listArray = new ArrayList<String>();
listArray.add("Germany");
listArray.add("Holland");
listArray.add("Sweden");
String []strArray = new String[3];
String[] a = listArray.toArray(strArray);
However, in Java arrays contain their content type (String) at runtime, while generics are erased by the compiler, so there is still no way for the runtime system to know that it should create a String[] in your code.
You need it to get array types other than Object[]. listArray.toArray(new String[3]) shouldn't actually need a cast to String[], but it lets you write into arrays for specific types, rather than the (rather unsafe) approach of just casting Object[] to whatever your type is.
It is so that when you have an non-empty array you want object to be appended to from the arraylist conversion you can do that without having to create a new array, and do post processing of merging it, save resource and extra work.
Read the second paragraph of the javadoc: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/java/util/ArrayList.html#toArray(T[])
ArrayList doesn't have enough information given that the "data" itself is stored in buckets of Object arrays. So, if you know "what" kind of items you have in your array list, you can achieve type safety by using this variant of the toArray method.
It is not compulsory to pass an Array as an argument to toArray(), you can directly call ArrayList.toArray()
As we know that Collection framework with generics works with the concept of Type Erasure. So the ArrayList becomes List of Object, so when you convert to array it will give an Object[] if you don't pass any argument.
Because the array into which the elements are to be copied should be specified to the JVM.
See this documentation
With the fear of sounding stupid.
Recently, I started with java/android.
I am loving it, but for the love of all that is good, I have come across an operator i can't seem to understand.
The thing is, I do not even know the name of it, so googling for it has been close to impossible. I have not found anything about it, not because it is not there, but because I do not even know where to start.
The operator is <someObject>. The same operator used in List<object>.
I actually became fascinated with it when using the AsyncTask class in android where I had to do something like
MyClass extends AsyncTask<String[], Drawable[], Drawable[]>{
...
Any info on this will be greatly appreciated.
It's not an operator - it's how you specify a generic type parameter.
It's probably best to start off with the Generics part of the Java Tutorial, then Gilad Bracha's paper, then consume the Java Generics FAQ for anything else. (There are lots of knotty corners in Java generics.)
It is not an operator, it is how you declare a parameterized type.
Before Java 5, you coulnd't say that your List was a "List of something", just a List with no type. So when you took an object out of your list, you had to cast it back to a specific type :
List strings = new ArrayList();
strings.add("hello");
String s = (String) strings.get(0);
With Java 5, you can specify the type of the elements, using angular brackets :
List<String> strings = new ArrayList<String>();
strings.add("hello");
String s = strings.get(0);
Because you know the exact type of the elements now, you don't have to cast the objects you get from the list anymore. Plus, the compiler won't let you add incompatible objects in the list :
List<String> strings = new ArrayList<String>();
strings.add(42); // Compiler error : expected a String, got an int
It's to do with generic types and type safety.
In "old java" you just had a List and it contained Objects - not type safe.
List l = new List();
l.add(new Type1()); // valid
l.add(new SomeOtherType()); // valid
These days you say
List<Type1> l = new List<Type1>();
l.add(new Type1()); // valid
l.add(new SomeOtherType()); // invalid since it is a list of Type1
The items in the List can be Type1 or any of it's subclasses.
If I understand your question, then List<Object> myList = new List<Object> means myList can hold Objects or any of its subclasses. This means myList can hold any object as they're all subclasses of Object.
Prior to Java 1.5, Java's collection classes were "untyped" (technically they still are). They could only store items that were derived from java.lang.Object. This was a bit cumbersome as you were forced to cast Object to your assumed contained type. This lead to all kinds of issues and oddities here and there.
Sun (now Oracle), added a "trick" to the language that would allow developers to specify a "type" for a container or other object. As I said, this is a "trick", the compiler performs type safety checks but in reality there is no change to the signature of the object emitted. It cleans up the code and adds a small amount of type safety but in reality its nothing more than a parlor trick.
Look up the Generics documentation provided with the JDK and the tutorials available.