CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javagenerics
Justin Albano
Justin Albano

Reputation: 3939

Supply Class object as a generic argument

Is there a way to supply a object of Class as an argument to a generic method?

For example, I have a method:

public <T> Queue <T> getSomething (...)

And I have an object of Class, such as 

Class<?> key = ...

Is there a way I can supply the key as the generic argument for the getSomething(...) method? A pseudo-coded example would be:

Queue<key> queue = object.<key>getSomething(...)

Upvotes: 0

Views: 570

Answers (3)

newacct
newacct

Reputation: 122449

You can't do this, because it would be useless.

Generics type parameters is purely a compile-time type-checking facility. Therefore, what would be the point of a type parameter that is not known at compile time? You would not be able to say anything about it, and you would not be able to do anything with it.

Upvotes: 2

Andy Thomas
Andy Thomas

Reputation: 86411

You can pass a class object into a method declared like this:

public <T> Queue<T> getSomething( Class<T> type, ... ) { ... }

Upvotes: 0

Peter Lawrey
Peter Lawrey

Reputation: 533530

You can pass it as an argument, like any other argument

Class<T> tClass = ...
Queue<T> queue = object.getSomething(tClass, ...);

Upvotes: 0

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