Java constructor using generic types

Posted by user37903 on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by user37903
Published on 2010-03-16T18:41:07Z Indexed on 2010/03/17 8:01 UTC
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I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around Java generic types. Here's a simple piece of code that in my mind should work, but I'm obviously doing something wrong.

Eclipse reports this error in BreweryList.java:

The method initBreweryFromObject() is undefined for the type <T>

The idea is to fill a Vector with instances of objects that are a subclass of the Brewery class, so the invocation would be something like:

BreweryList breweryList = new BreweryList(BrewerySubClass.class, list);

BreweryList.java

package com.beerme.test;

import java.util.Vector;

public class BreweryList<T extends Brewery> extends Vector<T> {
 public BreweryList(Class<T> c, Object[] j) {
  super();
  for (int i = 0; i < j.length; i++) {
   T item = c.newInstance();

   // initBreweryFromObject() is an instance method
   // of Brewery, of which <T> is a subclass (right?)

   c.initBreweryFromObject();

   // "The method initBreweryFromObject() is undefined
   // for the type <T>"
  }
 }
}

Brewery.java

package com.beerme.test;

public class Brewery {

 public Brewery() {
  super();
 }

 protected void breweryMethod() {
 }
}

BrewerySubClass.java

package com.beerme.test;

public class BrewerySubClass extends Brewery {
 public BrewerySubClass() {
  super();
 }

 public void androidMethod() {
 }
}

I'm sure this is a complete-generics-noob question, but I'm stuck. Thanks for any tips!

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