Create Different update() Methods for Observer

Hello, world!

I have an Observer/Observable set up, and I would like to accept two different object types from the observable. I tried just making the two update functions:

Code:

---

public void update(Observable observable, Integer message) {
    // do something with message
}
public void update(Observable observable, String message) {
    // do something with message
}
public void update(Observable observable, Object message) {}

---

But they weren't called, instead the main update(Object) method was called. How can I get it to call my other update()s instead, or is there another way to accept multiple types (without typecasting; I need to know what type of object it is).

Thanks!

could you just bake the type casting into the update(Object) one?

Code:

---

public void update(Observable observable, Object message) {
  if (message instanceof Integer) {
    update(observable, (Integer) message);
  }
  else if (message instanceof String) {
    update(observable, (String) message);
  }
  else {
    // do something with object
  }
}

public void update(Observable observable, Integer message) {
    // do something with message
}
public void update(Observable observable, String message) {
    // do something with message
}

---

Ah, that works perfectly, thanks. I didn't think that would work... I figured it would say return false and say it was an Object.

For future reference, I tried without the if (just calling the the other update directly), but it didn't work; apparently the typecast is necessary.