Thread: Creating classes with generic objects

Hi,

I want to create a data structure class which works for more than one type of object, but each instance of the data structure should hold only one type of data specified when it is instantiated. For example I could have a queue of apples or a queue of oranges, but not a queue of apples and oranges. I'm fairly certain I need to use a generic object to do this but I'm not sure how. Any ideas?

Thanks

Yes, you want "generics" - the term used, rather than "generic object. There is a good description in its own chapter Oracle's Tutorial.

This is (from a Java perspective) such a natural way of dealing with data structures that you find generics used pretty much whereever collections of any sort are used. Before writing your own class make sure you are happy with how generics are used with, eg, ArrayList or even java.util.Queue. Being familiar with generics as a "user" will help when it comes to implementing classes this way as an "author".

Hi,
Thanks so much for the link. I am familiar with using generics: I have used ArrayList and Comparable and other classes that use them, I was just unsure how to implement them syntactically.