Generic Types and Methods

Generic types and methods are a new feature of Java 5.0. A generic type is a class or interface that has one or more type variables and one or more methods that use a type variable as a placeholder for an argument or return type.

Using generic types and methods allows you to take advantage of stronger compile-time type checking. When a generic type is used, an actual type is specified for each type variable. This additional type information is used by the compiler to automatically cast the associated return values.

• Creating Generic Types
  PowerDesigner allows you to designate classes and interfaces as generic types.
• Creating Generic Methods
  PowerDesigner allows you to designate operations as generic methods. Generic methods are methods that have their own list of type variables.
• Creating a Specialized Classifier
  If you need to create a classifier that will inherit from a generic type, you must create an intermediary bound classifier. The Generic Classifier Specialization Wizard can perform these steps for you.
• Creating a Bound Classifier
  You may need to bind a classifier to a generic classifier without creating a specialized classifier. The Bound Classifier Wizard can do this for you.
• Generic Type Example
  In the example below, the bound interface, List_T, specifies a type 'T' for the type parameter <E> of List.

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Created October 7, 2009. Send feedback on this help topic to Sybase Technical Publications: pubs@sybase.com