Re: Delegation and generics craziness

From:
Steven Simpson <ss@domain.invalid>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.programmer
Date:
Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:29:54 +0100
Message-ID:
<5cidnVNCWe-_GD3VRVnygwA@pipex.net>
Sideswipe wrote:

I am trying to create a delegate Map that simply throws an exception
if an attempt to insert a duplicate key occurs. That code is simple.
However, the delegate code is not and I am getting compile errors with
regards to my generics.

public class ExceptionOnDuplicateKeyMap<K, V> implements Map<K,V> {
    private final Map<? extends K, ? extends V> delegate;

    public ExceptionOnDuplicateKeyMap(Map<? extends K, ? extends V>
delegate) {
        this.delegate = delegate;
    }
  


I don't think you have the freedom to use <? extends K> here.

Suppose you have a class hierarchy (Object, A, B), and a Map<B,
something> 'delegate', and an ExceptionOnDuplicateKeyMap<A,something>
'outer' wrapped around it. This should be acceptable to the constructor
and the field, since B extends A.

The constraints on the wrapper class allow you to call outer.put(someA,
someValue), and this maps to:

    public V put(K key, V value) {
        if(delegate.containsKey(key))
            throw new IllegalArgumentException();
        return delegate.put(key,value); // error here
    }
  


But 'delegate' only takes B keys - 'A's are too general, and you're
trying to by-pass this restriction. The error is alerting you to this.

Therefore, in this case, you'll have to take a 'delegate' of the form:

Map<K, ? extends V> delegate;

You may have to do something similar with V too; I haven't checked.

(You might be able to use <? super K>, but there are probably other
methods which simultaneously impose <? extends K> or even <K>, so
together they force you to use just <K>.)

--
ss at comp dot lancs dot ac dot uk |

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