What does protected T function() means?

Question

While looking into some code I found out that there is following kind of syntax.

 protected <T> T Execute(Class<T> returnType){
    T t;
    return t;
    }

What does this mean?? What if I want to save the outcome in some variable of other class?

than you provide the generic as the correct type, the one your variable wants to have aswell, and call it? — SomeJavaGuy, Apr 18 '17 at 07:14
Read https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/extra/generics/methods.html — Jens, Apr 18 '17 at 07:15

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

2

Type parameter has been added to java.lang.Class to enable one specific use of Class objects as type-safe object factories. Essentially, the addition of lets you instantiate classes in a type-safe manner, like this:

T instance = myClass.newInstance();

How to use Class<T> in Java?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

Community

1
1

answered Apr 18 '17 at 07:17

Pooja Arora

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7
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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 18 '17 at 07:21

You can use newInstance() method.

protected <T> T execute(Class<T> returnType) {
    T t = returnType.newInstance();
    return t;
    }

But you will have to handle

InstantiationException, IllegalAccessException

Although this is a strange, unwanted way to create new objects, AbstractFactory would be a better solution.

What does protected T function() means?

2 Answers2