Thread: Stupid question on the use of < >

I've been noticing these > and < markers in some code and in the Java API, but not been able to find any documentation on what exactly they are used for and how they work. If I only knew what they are called (especially in the Java context) I could of course google the answer... Do feel free to explain here or point me in the right direction, by all means.

Just a basic concept where I'm not really sure what I'm looking at.

Explore this trail, Java Operators.

These are used for multiple purposes. The most obvious would be for comparison of numbers, the '<' compares whether the left value is smaller then the value on the right or not.
The '>' does it the other way around.
They are also used for bit-shifting and they are used to define generic type parameters.

define generic type parameters

This is probably what I was wondering about. Off to practice my Google-fu, then:
Generic Types (The Java™ Tutorials > Learning the Java Language > Generics (Updated))

--- Update ---

This is probably the answer:

The type parameter section, delimited by angle brackets (<>), follows the class name. It specifies the type parameters (also called type variables) T1, T2, ..., and Tn.

Ahh. Yes. More context, like MyClass<String>, would have been helpful.

Originally Posted by GregBrannon

MyClass<String>

I guess part of my question was how to read something like that. Is this explained somewhere?

My shorthand 'context' is/was probably not the best, but this Oracle trail on generics should help you. The third page talks about the "generic declaration," but you should review the whole trail.