Develop Reference

Java object array declaration [duplicate]

I am trying do something like this:-
public static ArrayList<myObject>[] a = new ArrayList<myObject>[2];
myObject is a class. I am getting this error:- Generic array creation (arrow is pointing to new.)

You can't have arrays of generic classes. Java simply doesn't support it.
You should consider using a collection instead of an array. For instance,
public static ArrayList<List<MyObject>> a = new ArrayList<List<MyObject>();
Another "workaround" is to create an auxilliary class like this
class MyObjectArrayList extends ArrayList<MyObject> { }
and then create an array of MyObjectArrayList.
Here is a good article on why this is not allowed in the language. The article gives the following example of what could happen if it was allowed:
List<String>[] lsa = new List<String>[10]; // illegal
Object[] oa = lsa; // OK because List<String> is a subtype of Object
List<Integer> li = new ArrayList<Integer>();
li.add(new Integer(3));
oa[0] = li;
String s = lsa[0].get(0);

There is a easier way to create generic arrays than using List.
First, let
public static ArrayList<myObject>[] a = new ArrayList[2];
Then initialize
for(int i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
a[i] = new ArrayList<myObject>();
}

You can do
public static ArrayList<myObject>[] a = (ArrayList<myObject>[])new ArrayList<?>[2];
or
public static ArrayList<myObject>[] a = (ArrayList<myObject>[])new ArrayList[2];
(The former is probably better.) Both will cause unchecked warnings, which you can pretty much ignore or suppress by using: #SuppressWarnings("unchecked")

if you are trying to declare an arraylist of your generic class you can try:
public static ArrayList<MyObject> a = new ArrayList<MyObject>();
this will give you an arraylist of myobject (size 10), or if u only need an arraylist of size 2 you can do:
public static ArrayList<MyObject> a = new ArrayList<MyObject>(2);
or you may be trying to make an arraylist of arraylists:
public static ArrayList<ArrayList<MyObject>> a = new ArrayList<ArrayList<MyObject>>();
although im not sure if the last this i said is correct...

It seems to me that you use the wrong type of parenthesis. The reason why you can't define an array of generic is type erasure.
Plus, declaration of you variable "a" is fragile, it should look this way:
List<myObject>[] a;
Do not use a concrete class when you can use an interface.

How to initialize an Array of Sets of HashMaps [duplicate]

I am trying do something like this:-
public static ArrayList<myObject>[] a = new ArrayList<myObject>[2];
myObject is a class. I am getting this error:- Generic array creation (arrow is pointing to new.)

You can't have arrays of generic classes. Java simply doesn't support it.
You should consider using a collection instead of an array. For instance,
public static ArrayList<List<MyObject>> a = new ArrayList<List<MyObject>();
Another "workaround" is to create an auxilliary class like this
class MyObjectArrayList extends ArrayList<MyObject> { }
and then create an array of MyObjectArrayList.
Here is a good article on why this is not allowed in the language. The article gives the following example of what could happen if it was allowed:
List<String>[] lsa = new List<String>[10]; // illegal
Object[] oa = lsa; // OK because List<String> is a subtype of Object
List<Integer> li = new ArrayList<Integer>();
li.add(new Integer(3));
oa[0] = li;
String s = lsa[0].get(0);

There is a easier way to create generic arrays than using List.
First, let
public static ArrayList<myObject>[] a = new ArrayList[2];
Then initialize
for(int i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
a[i] = new ArrayList<myObject>();
}

You can do
public static ArrayList<myObject>[] a = (ArrayList<myObject>[])new ArrayList<?>[2];
or
public static ArrayList<myObject>[] a = (ArrayList<myObject>[])new ArrayList[2];
(The former is probably better.) Both will cause unchecked warnings, which you can pretty much ignore or suppress by using: #SuppressWarnings("unchecked")

if you are trying to declare an arraylist of your generic class you can try:
public static ArrayList<MyObject> a = new ArrayList<MyObject>();
this will give you an arraylist of myobject (size 10), or if u only need an arraylist of size 2 you can do:
public static ArrayList<MyObject> a = new ArrayList<MyObject>(2);
or you may be trying to make an arraylist of arraylists:
public static ArrayList<ArrayList<MyObject>> a = new ArrayList<ArrayList<MyObject>>();
although im not sure if the last this i said is correct...

It seems to me that you use the wrong type of parenthesis. The reason why you can't define an array of generic is type erasure.
Plus, declaration of you variable "a" is fragile, it should look this way:
List<myObject>[] a;
Do not use a concrete class when you can use an interface.

How to return an interface from a method

Here is my method. I want to return a collection of strings from a Java method. I would like for the calling code to decide whether it wants to implement this collection as a Vector or a LinkedList or an ArrayList or something else that implements the List interface.
public List<String> findAvailableLanguages() {
Iterator<Map.Entry<String, String>> it = this.iterator();
List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
while (it.hasNext()) {
Map.Entry<String, String> n = it.next();
list.add(n.getKey());
}
...
However, I must instantiate a concrete class object inside of the method in order to build the collection. What do I now return that will be compatible with any class that implements List?
Is this possible?

It's more effective for the callers if you allow a List to be passed in the filling process instead of initiating your own. It will also make for code that's easily unit-testable, as this does the pattern known as Dependency Injection.
public List<String> populateWithAvailableLanguages(List<String> list) {
Iterator<Map.Entry<String, String>> it = this.iterator();
// List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
while (it.hasNext()) {
Map.Entry<String, String> n = it.next();
list.add(n.getKey());
}
}
Now the implementation of the List can be specified by the caller:
List<String> availableLanguages = new ArrayList<>();
Localizer.populateWithAvailableLanguages(availableLanguages);

In short, returning an ArrayList object type that can be cast into any other object type that implements List is not possible. The elements can be traversed and added to another object type but the collection type itself cannot be cast.
I'll explain why. When you say,
List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
the reference type of 'list' is List and the object type is ArrayList. The 'list' object that you now have gives you access to all the methods of the List interface but not to the other methods that ArrayList has although the list object can see them (kind of like a narrowing conversion). You can cast this list object back to an ArrayList object and that would work because the list instance anyway could see the methods that ArrayList had and hence casting this back will work (kind of like a widening conversion back to the original width).
But if you were to cast it to one of the other classes implementing the List interface like LinkedList or Vector or Stack, what will happen? The list instance does not know how the other methods present in LinkedList, Vector or Stack are implemented (as they are not in ArrayList). So it's kind of like a conversion where you do not know what needs to be done. So it will throw back a compiler error.
Extending this, you can see, if you had:
List<String> list = new LinkedList<String>();
now, casting the list back to a LinkedList will work but not back to an ArrayList.

Your method signature should be as below
Public Collection(? super List) findAvailableLanguages(){}

ClassCastException using Iterables from Guava

I am trying to use the Iterables class to filter an ArrayList, but when I try to cast the result back to the original type I get a ClassCastException at runtime.
// domains is an ArrayList<Domain> which is defined earlier in the class
Iterable<Domain> temp = Iterables.filter(domains, new Predicate<Domain>() {
public boolean apply(Domain input) {
if (input.getName().toLowerCase().contains(filter.toString().toLowerCase())) {
return true ;
} else {
return false;
}
}
}) ;
ArrayList<Domain> filteredDomains = (ArrayList<Domain>) temp ; // Error occurs here
To be complete, I am trying to use this in an Android application with a target of 1.6.

temp is not an ArrayList<Domain>. It is an Iterable<Domain>.
If you absolutely need an ArrayList<Domain> (or a List<Domain> in general), then you need to take a slightly different approach.
First, use Collections2.filter() instead of Iterables.filter(): to produce temp and then create a new ArrayList from the resulting Collection:
Collection<Domain> temp = Collections2.filter(domains, myPredicate) ;
List<Domain> filteredDomains = new ArrayList<Domain>(temp);
But you should really think if you need a List or ArrayList and if a Collection is not enough for what you want. If an Iterable is sufficient (for example if you only iterate over the content), then you can even keep using Iterables.filter().

The real return type is an anonymous class that extends IterableWithToString - and we cannot cast that type to ArrayList.
Here's the implementation on grepcode.

Temp is an Iterable not an ArrayList. Further more an ArrayList is an Iterable but not vice versa. What if you had
Iterable<?> iterable = new HashSet<?>();
You can see why a class cast exception would happen here.
To create an ArrayList from the Iterable you would have to iterate over the iterable itself and add to a new ArrayList
List<Domain> filteredDomains = new ArrayList<Domain>();
for(Iterator<Domain> i = temp.iterator(); i.hasNext();){
filteredDomains.add(i.next());
}

Collection in Java

Quick Question...
Can collections in Java hold more than one type? Or do they all have to be the same type?
thanks

Simple answer
Yes.
More detailed answer
You can either use generic collection, without <T> value, for example:
ArrayList a = new ArrayList();
a.add(2);
a.add("String");
Using collections without <T> is a bad habit and most IDEs / compilers give a warning here. You can circumvent it by using a collection of Object, i.e.:
ArrayList<Object> a = new ArrayList<Object>();
Or you can find some common interface or supertype that these element must have in, for example ArrayList<Number> - and you can store various objects that have common Number superclass, i.e. BigDecimal, BigInteger, Byte, Double, Float, Integer, Long, Short:
ArrayList<Number> a = new ArrayList<Number>();
a.add(2); // integer
a.add(42L); // long
a.add(123.45d); // double
System.out.println(a.toString()); // => [2, 42, 123.45]
Note that it essentially means that a elements are of Number class — i.e. you can't ask to execute subclass-specific methods (for example, Double#isInfinite(), which doesn't exist in Number superclass), although you can typecast in run-time if you somehow know it's safe to typecast:
a.get(2).isInfinite() // compile-time error
((Double) a.get(2)).isInfinite() // => false
((Double) a.get(1)).isInfinite() // run-time error (ClassCastException)
Run-time typecasting is also generally frowned upon, as it effectively circumvents proper compile-time type safety.
Also note that it's impossible to assign (or use) ArrayList<Number> in place of ArrayList<Integer> and vice-versa, i.e. this will fail to compile:
public void printNumbers(ArrayList<Number> list) {
list.forEach(System.out::println);
}
ArrayList<Integer> a = new ArrayList<Integer>();
printNumbers(a); // "incompatible types"
as well as this:
public void printIntegers(ArrayList<Integer> list) {
list.forEach(System.out::println);
}
ArrayList<Number> a = new ArrayList<Number>();
printIntegers(a); // "incompatible types"
To declare a variable to be able to accept both ArrayList<Number> or any of its subclasses, one can use ArrayList<? extends Number> or ArrayList<? super Number> syntax. extends is generally used when you're going to consume (i.e. read) from the object in your method, super is used when you're going to produce (i.e. write). Given that printout is consuming, it's safe to use extends:
public void printNumbers(ArrayList<? extends Number> list) {
list.forEach(System.out::println);
}
ArrayList<Integer> listInt = new ArrayList<Integer>();
printNumbers(listInt); // works
ArrayList<Double> listDbl = new ArrayList<Double>();
printNumbers(listDbl); // also works
There is a good answer in
Difference between <? super T> and <? extends T> in Java for more in-depth explanation.

If you want them to hold any more than one type, use Collection<Object>. However, you won't know what you're getting without doing some if (x instanceof MyType) calls, which are rather inefficient.

They have to be of the same Supertype. So if you have objects of type A, then a Collection<A> can store objects of type A and of every subtype of A.
If you want to allow arbitrary types, then use Collection<Object>, otherwise take the most general appropriate super-class.
However, you will then have to manually cast from the most general type (Object) to the specific type you have in mind. You can use the typeof operator to find out what the type is.

Every Collection classes can contains heterogeneous objects except TreeSet and TreeMap. Since TreeSet and TreeMap stores elements according to some sorting order. so, if objects are of different type it will not be able to sort it because comparison between the objects will not be possible for sorting.

Yes they can but they should not (that's why generics have been put in place since 5th version of jdk) in general store different types, as this is the straight way to errors.

Yes collections in java can hold more than one type as below. But it will throw an exception if done using the following way.
ArrayList al = new ArrayList();
al.add(1);
al.add("name");
al.add(1.2f);
Iterator itr =al.iterator();
while(itr.hasNext())
{
System.out.println(itr.next());
}
Hence it's better to mention the type that you're using. To get rid of the exception the above program can be modified as below.
ArrayList<Integer> al = new ArrayList<Integer>();
al.add(1);
al.add(2);
al.add(3);
Iterator itr =al.iterator();
while(itr.hasNext())
{
System.out.println(itr.next());
}
ArrayList<String> al1 = new ArrayList<String>();
al1.add("Words");
al1.add("Names");
al1.add("Characters");
Iterator itr1 =al1.iterator();
while(itr1.hasNext())
{
System.out.println(itr1.next());
}
You can also use more than these types.

Yes,
My mistake the correct code is this one and
ArrayList<Elements>()=new ArrayList();
or
ArrayList<E>()=new ArrayList();
should be the correct declaration if you want to use Generics in Collection.
class Test
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
// For Generic class of List
ArrayList<E> arrL1 = new ArrayList<E>();
arrL1.add("stackoverflow");
arrL1.add(1);
Iterator itr1=list.iterator();
while(itr1.hasNext())
{
System.out.println(itr1.next());
}
// for Particular datatype in List
ArrayList<String> list=new ArrayList<String>(); // Creating arraylist
list.add("Ravi"); // Adding object in arraylist
list.add("Vijay");
list.add("Ravi");
list.add("Ajay");
// transversing the values
Iterator itr=list.iterator();
while(itr.hasNext())
{
System.out.println(itr.next());
}
}
}
Output 1
stackoverflow
1
Output 2
Ravi
Vijay
Ravi
Ajay

I believe you can also use Collection<?>.

Yes, you can have more than one datatype in ArrayList of Collection.
class Test
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
// For Generic class of List
ArrayList<> arrL1 = new ArrayList<>();
arrL1.add("stackoverflow");
arrL1.add(1);
// for Particular datatype in List
ArrayList<String> list=new ArrayList<String>(); // Creating arraylist
list.add("Ravi"); // Adding object in arraylist
list.add("Vijay");
list.add("Ravi");
list.add("Ajay");
// transversing the values
Iterator itr=list.iterator();
while(itr.hasNext())
{
System.out.println(itr.next());
}
}
}
Output 1:
stackoverflow
1
Output 2:
Ravi
Vijay
Ravi
Ajay