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Chapter: Java The Complete Reference : The Java Language : Generics

Generics

Since the original 1.0 release in 1995, many new features have been added to Java.

Chapter 14

Generics

Since the original 1.0 release in 1995, many new features have been added to Java. One that has had a profound impact is generics. Introduced by JDK 5, generics changed Java in two important ways. First, it added a new syntactical element to the language. Second, it caused changes to many of the classes and methods in the core API. Today, generics are an integral part of Java programming, and a solid understanding of this important feature is required. It is examined here in detail.

 

Through the use of generics, it is possible to create classes, interfaces, and methods that will work in a type-safe manner with various kinds of data. Many algorithms are logically the same no matter what type of data they are being applied to. For example, the mechanism that supports a stack is the same whether that stack is storing items of type Integer, String, Object, or Thread. With generics, you can define an algorithm once, independently of any specific type of data, and then apply that algorithm to a wide variety of data types without any additional effort. The expressive power generics added to the language fundamentally changed the way that Java code is written.

 

Perhaps the one feature of Java that has been most significantly affected by generics is the Collections Framework. The Collections Framework is part of the Java API and is described in detail in Chapter 18, but a brief mention is useful now. A collection is a group of objects. The Collections Framework defines several classes, such as lists and maps, that manage collections. The collection classes have always been able to work with any type of object. The benefit that generics added is that the collection classes can now be used with complete type safety. Thus, in addition to being a powerful language element on its own, generics also enabled an existing feature to be substantially improved. This is another reason why generics were such an important addition to Java.

 

This chapter describes the syntax, theory, and use of generics. It also shows how generics provide type safety for some previously difficult cases. Once you have completed this chapter, you will want to examine Chapter 18, which covers the Collections Framework. There you will find many examples of generics at work.


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