Re: Generics inheritance

From:
Hendrik Maryns <hendrik_maryns@despammed.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.programmer
Date:
Wed, 06 Jun 2007 12:22:32 +0200
Message-ID:
<f461sg$6l4$1@newsserv.zdv.uni-tuebingen.de>
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Philipp schreef:

Hello
Why can't I call a method with signature
doSomething(Collection<Point> points)

with an argument ArrayList<MyPoint> (where MyPoint extends Point and
ArrayList implements Collection)?


Because an C<A> does not extend a C<B>, even if B extends A. Thoroughly
read a generics tutorial if you don???t understand why.

How should I work around this?


Either you change the signature of the method to

void doSomething(Collection<? extends Point> points)

or, if you do not have access to its implementation, wrap your ArrayList
into another one:

List<Point> lessSpecificList = new ArrayList<Point>(myList);
doSomething(lessSpecificList)

But note that this can give problems, if stuff happens to the less
specific list. (In the case below, there is not problem.)

HTH, H.

Example code:

== Test.java ==
import java.awt.Point;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collection;

public class Test {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    ArrayList<MyPoint> list = new ArrayList<MyPoint>();
    list.add(new MyPoint(1,2,5));
    doSomething(list); // gives compile error
  }

  public static void doSomething(Collection<Point> points){
    for(Point p: points){
      System.out.println(p);
    }
  }
}

== MyPoint.java ==
import java.awt.Point;

public class MyPoint extends Point {
  public int height;
  public MyPoint(int i, int j, int height) {
    super(i,j);
    this.height = height;
  }
}


- --
Hendrik Maryns
http://tcl.sfs.uni-tuebingen.de/~hendrik/
==================
http://aouw.org
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