Just Java™ 2

Generic Methods

So far we have seen the wildcard feature used to give the methods you write some minimal knowledge about parameters that are generic types. You may be surprised (appalled, dismayed, horrified, or even delighted) to learn that individual methods can also be generic. In other words, there is a way to parameterize your methods with one or more type parameters.

As with classes, the type parameters are spelled out in angle brackets before the variable parameters. The type parameter comes immediately before the return type for the method, and after any access modifier. Here is the printFirst() method from the previous section rewritten to be a generic method:

public <T> void printFirst(LinkedList <T> e) { }

The generic parameter, ...