Re: How to create array of hash table with correct types

From:
Lew <lew@lewscanon.com>
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.java.help
Date:
Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:59:42 -0400
Message-ID:
<PIKdncaNbfuCD_DVnZ2dnUVZ_sidnZ2d@comcast.com>
Roedy Green wrote:

On Thu, 3 Jul 2008 16:38:21 -0700 (PDT), jonbbbb <jon.berg@gmail.com>
wrote, quoted or indirectly quoted someone who said :

I tried the following, which does not compile:

private Hashtable<String, NodeAddress>[] cache = {new
Hashtable<String, NodeAddress>(),new Hashtable<String,
NodeAddress>()};


How about actually *citing* the error message?

~/projects/testit/src/testit/Foo.java:22: generic array creation


I guess that means you can't create a generic array.

Could that be? Could the error message actually have already answered your
question?

Let's research:
<http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/arrays.html#10.3>

It is a compile-time error if the element type is not a reifiable type (?4.7)


<http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/typesValues.html#4.7>

A type is reifiable if and only if one of the following holds:

* It refers to a non-generic type declaration.
* It is a parameterized type in which all type arguments are
unbounded wildcards (?4.5.1).
* It is a raw type (?4.8).
* It is a primitive type (?4.2).
* It is an array type (?10.1) whose component type is reifiable.


So the answer is, no, you cannot do that.

Anyway, arrays and generics don't play well together. Make a List of Maps
instead.

Additionally, I suggest using HashMap instead of Hashtable, and declaring the
variable in terms of List <Map> rather than a concrete type.

  private List <Map <String, Foo>> cache
        = new ArrayList <Map <String, Foo>> ();
  {
    cache.add( new HashMap <String, Foo> ());
    cache.add( new HashMap <String, Foo> ());
  }

--
Lew

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