Any good example classes for introducing generics in Java? I'm introducing this in the context of implementing ArrayList, but I don't want my first example to be ArrayList itself due to the inability to create arrays of a generic type. I would also like my example to be something that doesn't seem contrived/has a practical use.
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1$\begingroup$ "Implementing" ArrayList or using the library class ArrayList from Collections? $\endgroup$ – Buffy Oct 5 '18 at 10:48
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$\begingroup$ You can pretty easily do a linked list. $\endgroup$ – ncmathsadist Oct 10 '18 at 13:17
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$\begingroup$ @ncmathsadist Definitely, but I wanted to introduce generics between array list and linked list, so that we could start off using linked lists with generics. I'm happy with the pair example mentioned below - it went over well in class. $\endgroup$ – cryptic_star Oct 10 '18 at 13:49
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While uniform collections are the obvious example, you can also build or use a Pair class in which the types of the two components are given by generic arguments. If you don't want to build it, there is a built-in class with this property: $Pair<K,V>$
But building one like it is simple enough if that is your goal.
Once you have your desired class, Write a function/method that needs to return two things instead of one. Bundle them up in a Pair.
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$\begingroup$ Perfect! Thank you! This is a very obvious one. I suppose that's what I get for making slides at night. $\endgroup$ – cryptic_star Oct 5 '18 at 11:07
