StableMatch - Gale Shapley algorithm aka the Stable Marriage

[blaqkout]

I'm having some trouble getting my StableMatch program to work. Any advice is welcome.

Here's the code in question:

I'm getting Type mismatch: cannot convert from Person<E> to E.

// sets the name of the match for the Person provided
	public void setMatch(Person<E> name){
		match = name;
	}

and here's the class code

public abstract class Person <E>{

	public E match;
	private String fname;
	protected List <E> preferences;
	private String name;
	
	// Person Constructor
	public Person (String aName){
		name = aName;
	}
	
	// sets name value for Person
	public void setName(String aName){
		name = aName;
	}
	
	// returns the name of the Person object
	public String getName(){
		return fname;
	}
	
	// returns the name of the Person
	public String toString(){
		if (this.preferences == null)
			return match.toString();
		else return ("" + match.toString() + preferences);
	}
	
	// sets the name of the match for the Person provided
	public void setMatch(Person<E> name){
		match = name;
	}
	
	// gets the match of the Person
	public E getMatch(){
		return match;
	}
	
	// tells whether the Person is available for a match
	public boolean isAvailable(){
		if (this.getMatch() == null) return true;
		else return false;
	}
	
	// displays the match of the Person
	public String displayMatch(Person<E> p){
		if (p.getMatch() == null){
			return p.fname + " is not currently matched";
		}
		else return p.fname + " is matched to "+ this.getMatch();
	}
	
	public void initializePreferences(List < E > hospitals, int[]hospitalPreferences){
		for (int i=0; i < hospitalPreferences.length; i++)
			preferences.add(hospitals.get(hospitalPreferences[i]));	
	}
	
	public void displayPreferences(){
		System.out.println(this.name + "'s preferences are:");
		Iterator<E> it = preferences.iterator();
		while (it.hasNext())
			System.out.print("\t" + it.next());
		System.out.println();
	}
	public static void main (String args[]){
		
	}
}

Obviously, I'm a fairly novice programmer. Just looking for some help pointing me in the right direction.

[Norm]

The error message says what the problem is: cannot convert from Person<E> to E.
You have a type mismatch in an assignment statement.

[blaqkout]

Yeah, I know that the type in the signature is Person <E> (generic) and that the variable "match" is of type E (generic object). Can I cast it or is there something fundamentally wrong with my approach? I want to set the match of the person. Based on my other code do you have any suggestions?

[Norm]

I want to set the match of the person

What is the type of variable can be assigned to the match variable?
match is type E
name is type Person<E>

Can you change the type of name?