Can generic types implement an interface?

[jdgallag]

Is there any way to do make a generic type declaration such that the type implements some interface?

For example, suppose I want to write a method that sorts anything that implements comparable (further, suppose for academic reasons that I do not want to use Collections.Sort). Then I want a generic type T such that T implements Comparable. Yet I believe the following code is invalid java:

public static <T implements Comparable> T sort(Collection<T> coll){
		...sorting algorithm goes here...
	}

How can I work around this?

[DarrylBurke]

I'm no expert in Generics, but I believe that should be

<T extends Comparable>

or

<T extends Comparable<T>>

db

[emceenugget]

I didn't know the answer either, but a quick Google search (Francisoud's Blog: Java generics and interface) supports what Darryl.Burke says.

[jdgallag]

Burke is right I need to extend Comparable. What I want is a method that works over all types T such that T is comparable, to return a collection of type T. The correct type signature of the method is

	public static <T extends Comparable<T>> Collection<T> sort(Collection<T> coll){
		return coll;		
	}

Then the next step is not to figure out how to sort it, that is just a sorting algorithm. The question is, does this method actually make sense. Does it make sense to sort any collection?

No, of course not. Lists should be sorted, and arrays, and arrayLists, and maybe some others, vector? But Tree, Set, Map, Bag? I can't find any reason to sort these. So, instead of a method that sorts a collection of Type<T> and returns a collection of type<T>, perhaps it is more appropriate to identify some collection interface, where every implementor is sortable, and go from there. I don't really know my way around collections. Any suggestions?