Generic Methods in Java

Article by: Manish Methani

Last Updated: October 23, 2021 at 8:04am IST
1 min 17 sec read

What are generic methods ?

Suppose you have an integer array of 4 elements

Integer[] iray = {10,20,30,40};

And one character array of 4 characters

Character[] cray = {'c','o','d','z'}

Now if you want to print the elements in both of these arrays you have to write two different print methods. And Suppose in future there is also Float[] array and double[] array too. Then think you have to write a print method to display the elements of array four times.

So here, Generic Methods comes into existence. One method can handle different types . Thats why it is called as generic Type.

Program before using Generic Methods

import java.util.*;

public class JavaGenericMethods {
  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    Integer[] iray = {10,20,30,40};
    Character[] cray = {'c','o','d','z'};
    Double[] dray = {10.2,12.3,14.6};
    
    printElements(iray);
    printElements(cray);
    printElements(dray);
  }

  
  public static void printElements(Integer[] i)
  {
    for(Integer x: i )
    {
      System.out.printf("%s ", x);
    }
    System.out.println();
  }
  
  public static void printElements(Character[] c)
  {
    for(Character x: c )
    {
      System.out.printf("%s ", x);
    }
    System.out.println();
  }
  
  public static void printElements(Double[] i)
  {
    for(Double x: i )
    {
      System.out.printf("%s ", x);
    }
    System.out.println();
  }
}

Output :-

10 20 30 40 
c o d z 
10.2 12.3 14.6 

Program after using Generic Methods

import java.util.*;

public class JavaGenericMethods {
  public static void main(String[] args)
  {
    Integer[] iray = {10,20,30,40};
    Character[] cray = {'c','o','d','z'};
    Double[] dray = {10.2,12.3,14.6};
    
    printElements(iray);
    printElements(cray);
    printElements(dray);
  }

  
  public static  void printElements(T[] i)
  {
    for(T x: i )
    {
      System.out.printf("%s ", x);
    }
    System.out.println();
  }
}

Output :-

10 20 30 40 
c o d z 
10.2 12.3 14.6