Re: how to get the return type of a Generic method

From:
Lew <lew@lewscanon.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.programmer
Date:
Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:04:10 -0400
Message-ID:
<DpydnQFnxMm2xXjanZ2dnUVZ_vamnZ2d@comcast.com>
Sideswipe wrote:

Yeah, see this is the problem. I need to know what type WOULD be
returned without actually calling the function and returning it.
Basically, the problem is that I need to find compatible Comparables
based on this method. I kinda suspected I would need a class param but
I don't want to have to do it/make that case. It would be truly great
to KNOW things about the type T


You could start with Mark Space's suggestion and change the type bounds
somewhat. Let the compiler figure out the supertype; don't do it by hand.

<sscce>
package testit;

import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;

/** SomePair - .
  */
public class SomePair <F extends Comparable<? super S>,
                        S extends Comparable<? super F>>
{
     private final F first;
     private final S second;

     public SomePair( F f, S s )
     {
         this.first = f;
         this.second = s;
     }

     public final F getFirst() { return first; }
     public final S getSecond() { return second; }

     public int compareFirstToSecond()
     {
         return first.compareTo( second );
     }

     /** Main method.
      * @param args <code>String []</code> program arguments.
      */
     public static void main( String[] args )
     {
         Integer a = 17;
         Integer b = 19;
         SomePair<Integer, Integer> sp =
                 new SomePair<Integer, Integer>( a, b );
         System.out.println( "a = " + sp.getFirst()
                         + ", b = " + sp.getSecond()
                         + ", compare " + sp.compareFirstToSecond() );

         java.sql.Date sd = new java.sql.Date( new java.util.Date().getTime() );
         try
         {
             Thread.sleep( 1 );
         }
         catch ( InterruptedException ex )
         {
         }
         java.util.Date ud = new java.util.Date();

         SomePair<java.sql.Date, java.util.Date> dp =
                 new SomePair<java.sql.Date, java.util.Date>( sd, ud );
         show( dp );

         sd = new java.sql.Date( ud.getTime() );
         dp = new SomePair<java.sql.Date, java.util.Date>( sd, ud );
         show( dp );
     }

     private static final String DFS = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ";
     private static final DateFormat DF = new SimpleDateFormat( DFS );

     private static void show( SomePair<java.sql.Date, java.util.Date> dp )
     {
         System.out.print( "java.sql.Date " );
         System.out.print( DF.format( dp.getFirst() ));
         System.out.print( ", java.util.Date " );
         System.out.print( DF.format( dp.getSecond() ));
         System.out.print( ", compare " );
         System.out.println( dp.compareFirstToSecond() );
     }
}
</sscce>

--
Lew

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