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Thread: Arrays and Generics

  1. #1
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    Default Arrays and Generics

    I'm having trouble with a generic method that can accept ArrayLists of type integer and type double.

    The program fails to compile because it says myList is of type "T" and i is of type "double".

    Here's a snippet of code:

    public double calculateTotals(ArrayList<T> list)
    {
           private ArrayList<T> myList = new ArrayList<T>(10);
           myList = list;
     
           for (double i : myList) {
            ....do stuff
           }
    }
     
    public static void main(String args[])
    {
    ArrayList<Double> doubleArrayList = new ArrayList<Double>(10);
    ...populate array...
     
    double totals = calculateTotals(doubleArrayList);
     
    }

    I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I thought myList would become an arraylist of type double since that's what I'm passing in.

    Any clues would be greatly appreciated!

    Thanks!


  2. #2
    Administrator copeg's Avatar
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    Default Re: Arrays and Generics

    First, you can't iterate over a generic list expecting it to be a double (this is the compile time checking at work that makes generics so powerful). You need to iterate over the list using the generic
    for ( T t : myList ){
    //do something
    }

    Second, you are accessing the method in a static way - define it as static or define a class that implements the method. Lastly, I presume based upon the function name you want to calculate the total regardless of whether the list contains int's, double's, etc...in which case you might want to have T extends Number, so you can use the doubleValue method to calculate the total

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Arrays and Generics

    Oh ok, that makes sense.

    I changed my for loop to use type "T"...

    once in the loop, I need to apply math operations to the data, but I can't use addition, subtraction, etc on type "T". How does one do math operations on generic types?

    Thanks!

    Quote Originally Posted by copeg View Post
    First, you can't iterate over a generic list expecting it to be a double (this is the compile time checking at work that makes generics so powerful). You need to iterate over the list using the generic
    for ( T t : myList ){
    //do something
    }

    Second, you are accessing the method in a static way - define it as static or define a class that implements the method. Lastly, I presume based upon the function name you want to calculate the total regardless of whether the list contains int's, double's, etc...in which case you might want to have T extends Number, so you can use the doubleValue method to calculate the total

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Arrays and Generics

    Ok, well I figured my other issue out myself...basically when using:
    for (T t : myList)

    I had to do this when performing math operations:

     
    total = (Double)t - constantRate;

  5. #5
    Administrator copeg's Avatar
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    Default Re: Arrays and Generics

    Read my post above again - if you defined T to extends Number, there will be no need to cast (which defeats the purpose of generics anyways)
    see Number (Java Platform SE 6)
    public class MyClass<T extends Number>{
       public void myFunction(List<T> list){
     
         for ( T t : list ){
             //use a method defined by number here
         }
       }
    }

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