Java Generics Wildcarding With Multiple Classes

Question

I want to have a Class object, but I want to force whatever class it represents to extend class A and implement interface B.

I can do:

Class<? extends ClassA>

Or:

Class<? extends InterfaceB>

but I can't do both. Is there a way to do this?

Answer 1

Actually, you can do what you want. If you want to provide multiple interfaces or a class plus interfaces, you have to have your wildcard look something like this:

<T extends ClassA & InterfaceB>

See the Generics Tutorial at sun.com, specifically the Bounded Type Parameters section, at the bottom of the page. You can actually list more than one interface if you wish, using & InterfaceName for each one that you need.

This can get arbitrarily complicated. To demonstrate, see the JavaDoc declaration of Collections#max, which (wrapped onto two lines) is:

public static <T extends Object & Comparable<? super T>> T
                                           max(Collection<? extends T> coll)

why so complicated? As said in the Java Generics FAQ: To preserve binary compatibility.

It looks like this doesn't work for variable declaration, but it does work when putting a generic boundary on a class. Thus, to do what you want, you may have to jump through a few hoops. But you can do it. You can do something like this, putting a generic boundary on your class and then:

class classB { }
interface interfaceC { }

public class MyClass<T extends classB & interfaceC> {
    Class<T> variable;
}

to get variable that has the restriction that you want. For more information and examples, check out page 3 of Generics in Java 5.0. Note, in <T extends B & C>, the class name must come first, and interfaces follow. And of course you can only list a single class.