Type-Casting Object doesn't Give me the Methods I need

[Ciwan]

Hello Friends

I am slightly stuck and I would greatly appreciate any help.

I have a Node class, and this class has several methods, one of which is [ getName() ] which returns a String that represents the name of the node.

Here is my code:

if(isAtEntrance())
    	{
    		// A place to store the safe paths.
    		ArrayList<Stack<String>> paths = new ArrayList<Stack<String>>();
    		
    		// The variable g stands for, and is the Graph object < which in itself is a Hashtable.
    		Hashtable<Node<Adjustment>, ArrayList<Node<Adjustment>>> g = getMap().getAdjacencyList();
    		
    		// Iterating through [g] to find safe paths.
    		Enumeration e = g.keys();
    		
    		while(e.hasMoreElements())
    		{
    			// A variable called [neighbours]. It represents the neighoubrs of the current node in the loop
    			ArrayList<Node<Adjustment>> neighbours = g.get((Node<Adjustment>)e.nextElement());
    			
    			// The Path [p] represented as a Stack. This will be inserted into our safe [paths] ArrayList later on.
    			Stack<String> p = new Stack<String>();
    			
    			// Iterating through the neighbours of the current node, and foreach building a path [p] from them. 
    			for(Node n : neighbours)
    			{
    				p.push((Node<Adjustment>)e.nextElement().getName());
    				p.push(n.getName());
    			}
    		}
    		
    	}

A couple of things are happening here (I hope you can see), but the gist of it is that I am iterating through a Hashtable.

e.nextElement() is an object. I am type casting it to a Node<Adjustment> but it isn't working. How do I know it isn't working ? .. It isn't giving me my getName() method.

What am I doing wrong ? I would greatly appreciate any help.

Thank You.

[aviolently]

did you try consulting the API ?

[DarrylBurke]

The first thing I see wrong with that code is multiple calls to e.nextElement() in a while(e.hasMoreElements()) loop. That's almost guaranteed to blow up.

db

[Ciwan]

Not really. I'm not sure what I'd be checking in the API.

I did google Type Casting in Java, cause I believe that's where the issue lies. am I wrong ?

[Norm]

Try debugging your code by assigning the value returned by nextElement to a variable and printing out that variable to see what is being returned. That will require adding a few more statements.

[Ciwan]

Thank You DarrylBruke

I did not realise that I had to only have it once within the loop. I have changed my code to the following:

if(isAtEntrance())
    	{
    		// A place to store the safe paths.
    		ArrayList<Stack<String>> paths = new ArrayList<Stack<String>>();
    		
    		// The variable g stands for, and is the Graph object < which in itself is a Hashtable.
    		Hashtable<Node<Adjustment>, ArrayList<Node<Adjustment>>> g = getMap().getAdjacencyList();
    		
    		// Iterating through [g] to find safe paths.
    		Enumeration e = g.keys();
    		
    		while(e.hasMoreElements())
    		{
    			// e.nextElement can only be used once within the while loop. So I'm assigning it to a variable that can be used many times.
    			Node<Adjustment> x = (Node<Adjustment>)e.nextElement();
    			
    			// A variable called [neighbours]. It represents the neighoubrs of the current node in the loop
    			ArrayList<Node<Adjustment>> neighbours = g.get(x);
    			
    			// The Path [p] represented as a Stack. This will be inserted into our safe [paths] ArrayList later on.
    			Stack<String> p = new Stack<String>();
    			
    			// Iterating through the neighbours of the current node, and foreach building a path [p] from them. 
    			for(Node n : neighbours)
    			{
    				p.push(x.getName());
    				p.push(n.getName());
    			}
    		}
    		
    	}

Seems to be OK now ! Eclipse does NOT give any errors !

Can some Eclipse master please tell me what I'm suppose to do when I get a warning such as:

Node is a raw type. References to generic type Node<NodeInfo> should be parameterized

or

Enumeration is a raw type. References to generic type Enumeration<E> should be parameterized

Do I ignore these cause they are Warnings and not Errors ? Or are they serious and I need to do something about them ? .. if the latter, I have no idea what to do !

[Norm]

You need to use generics with those classes the same as you have used it in other places in your code.
For example what type does g.keys() return?

[Ciwan]

Hello Norm

Still slightly confused ! g.keys() returns Enumeration<Node<Adjustment>>

Or at least that's what Eclipse says when I hover over the word keys(). !!

Sincere apologies if my dumbness in Java is causing you guys stress and unhappy feelings.

[Norm]

g.keys() returns Enumeration<Node<Adjustment>>

Look at what is to the left of "= g.keys();" and then look at the error message.

You forgot to post the lines that go with the error messages.

How did you code this code using so many generics and then have this problem???

[Ciwan]

Here is the code:

Enumeration e = g.keys();

And here's its error:

Enumeration is a raw type. References to generic type Enumeration<E> should be parameterized

I think I got what you mean now though. It turns out that the best practice is to make lucid the type of all variables. So I went ahead and did this:

Enumeration<Node<Adjustment>> e = g.keys();

And violla ! the warning is gone !

Thank You Ever So Much.

[Norm]

Its all magic