In Neal Gafter's "super type token" pattern (http://gafter.blogspot.com/2006/12/super-type-tokens.html), an anonymous object was used to pass in the parameterized type :
class ReferenceType<T>{}
/* anonymous subclass of "ReferenceType" */
ReferenceType<List<Integer>> referenceType = new ReferenceType<List<Integer>>(){
};
Type superClass = b.getClass().getGenericSuperclass();
System.out.println("super type : " + superClass);
Type genericType = ((ParameterizedType)superClass).getActualTypeArguments()[0];
System.out.println("actual parameterized type : " + genericType);
Then result is :
super type : com.superluli.test.ReferenceType<java.util.List<java.lang.Integer>>
actual parameterized type : java.util.List<java.lang.Integer>
My question is, what the magic does the anonymous object "referenceType" do to make it work? If I define a explicit subclass of "ReferenceType" and use it instead of the anonymous style, it doesn't as expected.
class ReferenceType<T>{}
class ReferenceTypeSub<T> extends ReferenceType<T>{}
/* explicitly(or, named) defined subclass of "ReferenceType" */
ReferenceType<List<Integer>> b = new ReferenceTypeSub<List<Integer>>();
Type superClass = b.getClass().getGenericSuperclass();
System.out.println("super type : " + superClass);
Type genericType = ((ParameterizedType)superClass).getActualTypeArguments()[0];
System.out.println("actual parameterized type : " + genericType);
The result is :
super type : com.superluli.test.ReferenceType<T>
actual parameterized type : T
This
ReferenceType<List<Integer>> referenceType = new ReferenceType<List<Integer>>(){
is equivalent to
public class AnonymousReferenceType extends ReferenceType<List<Integer>> {}
...
ReferenceType<List<Integer>> referenceType = new AnonymousReferenceType();
The hack works around Class#getGenericSuperclass()
which states
Returns the Type
representing the direct superclass of the entity
(class, interface, primitive type or void) represented by this Class.
If the superclass is a parameterized type, the Type
object returned
must accurately reflect the actual type parameters used in the source
code. The parameterized type representing the superclass is created if
it had not been created before. See the declaration of
ParameterizedType
for the semantics of the creation process for
parameterized types. If this Class
represents either the Object class,
an interface, a primitive type, or void
, then null
is returned. If
this object represents an array class then the Class
object
representing the Object
class is returned.
In other words, the superclass of AnonymousReferenceType
is a ParameterizedType
representing ReferenceType<List<Integer>>
. This ParameterizedType
has an actual type argument and that is a List<Integer>
which is what appears in the source code.
In your second example, which is not the same as your first,
class ReferenceType<T>{}
class ReferenceTypeSub<T> extends ReferenceType<T>{}
the super class (super type) of ReferenceTypeSub
is a ReferenceType<T>
which is a ParameterizedType
where the actual type argument is a TypeVariable
named T
, which is what appears in the source code.
To answer your question, you don't need an anonymous class. You just need a sub class which declares the type argument you want to use.