Writing generic methods

[eva]

Hi,

I am writing an application in which I have following 4 methods:

int startProcess(int a) { ... }
String startProcess(String a) { ... }
float startProcess(float a) { ... }

I want to declare a method that should be generic and that should serve all the purposes.

Please advice.

- PEACE

[tim]

Hello eva.

How about using objects of instance Object. Like:

public static Object startProcess(Object a) {
    //Todo
    return null;
}

You can then use casting to get the correct data type depending on what you want to do. To implement this method, you will need to use the instanceof keyword. For example:

public static Object startProcess(Object a) {
    // Handel if it is a String
    if (a instanceof String){
        String aString = (String) a;
        // Do something to aString
    }
    return aString;
}

I hope this helped.

[spoon!]

it would help more if you told us what this method should do
you could use generics like this:

public static <E> E startProcess(E a) { ... }

but you won't be able to do very much with the argument unless you know what type it is