- Java Generics Tutorial
- Java Generics - Home
- Java Generics - Overview
- Java Generics - Environment Setup
- Examples - Generic Classes
- Java Generics - Generic Classes
- Type Parameter Naming Conventions
- Java Generics - Type inference
- Java Generics - Generic Methods
- Java Generics - Multiple Type
- Java Generics - Parameterized Types
- Java Generics - Raw Types
- Examples - Bounded Type
- Bounded Type Parameters
- Java Generics - Multiple Bounds
- Examples - Collections
- Java Generics - Generic List
- Java Generics - Generic Set
- Java Generics - Generic Map
- Examples - Wild Cards
- Upper Bounded Wildcards
- Generics - Unbounded Wildcards
- Lower Bounded Wildcards
- Generics - Guidelines for Wildcards
- Type Erasure
- Java Generics - Types Erasure
- Java Generics - Bound Types Erasure
- Unbounded Types Erasure
- Java Generics - Methods Erasure
- Restrictions on Generics
- Java Generics - No Primitive Types
- Java Generics - No Instance
- Java Generics - No Static field
- Java Generics - No Cast
- Java Generics - No instanceOf
- Java Generics - No Array
- Java Generics - No Exception
- Java Generics - No Overload
- Java Generics Useful Resources
- Java Generics - Quick Guide
- Java Generics - Useful Resources
- Java Generics - Discussion
Java Generics - Methods
You can write a single generic method declaration that can be called with arguments of different types. Based on the types of the arguments passed to the generic method, the compiler handles each method call appropriately. Following are the rules to define Generic Methods −
All generic method declarations have a type parameter section delimited by angle brackets (< and >) that precedes the method's return type ( < E > in the next example).
Each type parameter section contains one or more type parameters separated by commas. A type parameter, also known as a type variable, is an identifier that specifies a generic type name.
The type parameters can be used to declare the return type and act as placeholders for the types of the arguments passed to the generic method, which are known as actual type arguments.
A generic method's body is declared like that of any other method. Note that type parameters can represent only reference types, not primitive types (like int, double and char).
Example
Following example illustrates how we can print an array of different type using a single Generic method −
public class GenericMethodTest { // generic method printArray public static < E > void printArray( E[] inputArray ) { // Display array elements for(E element : inputArray) { System.out.printf("%s ", element); } System.out.println(); } public static void main(String args[]) { // Create arrays of Integer, Double and Character Integer[] intArray = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 }; Double[] doubleArray = { 1.1, 2.2, 3.3, 4.4 }; Character[] charArray = { 'H', 'E', 'L', 'L', 'O' }; System.out.println("Array integerArray contains:"); printArray(intArray); // pass an Integer array System.out.println("\nArray doubleArray contains:"); printArray(doubleArray); // pass a Double array System.out.println("\nArray characterArray contains:"); printArray(charArray); // pass a Character array } }
This will produce the following result −
Output
Array integerArray contains: 1 2 3 4 5 Array doubleArray contains: 1.1 2.2 3.3 4.4 Array characterArray contains: H E L L O
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