How do I fix "The expression of type List needs un

Question

In the Java snippet:

SyndFeedInput fr = new SyndFeedInput();
SyndFeed sf = fr.build(new XmlReader(myInputStream));
List<SyndEntry> entries = sf.getEntries();

the last line generates the warning

"The expression of type List needs unchecked conversion to conform to List<SyndEntry>"

What's an appropriate way to fix this?

Answer 1

This is a common problem when dealing with pre-Java 5 APIs. To automate the solution from erickson, you can create the following generic method:

public static <T> List<T> castList(Class<? extends T> clazz, Collection<?> c) {
    List<T> r = new ArrayList<T>(c.size());
    for(Object o: c)
      r.add(clazz.cast(o));
    return r;
}

This allows you to do:

List<SyndEntry> entries = castList(SyndEntry.class, sf.getEntries());

Because this solution checks that the elements indeed have the correct element type by means of a cast, it is safe, and does not require SuppressWarnings.

Answer 2

SyndFeedInput fr = new SyndFeedInput();
SyndFeed sf = fr.build(new XmlReader(myInputStream));
List<?> entries = sf.getEntries();

Answer 3

Since getEntries returns a raw List, it could hold anything.

The warning-free approach is to create a new List<SyndEntry>, then cast each element of the sf.getEntries() result to SyndEntry before adding it to your new list. Collections.checkedList does not do this checking for you—although it would have been possible to implement it to do so.

By doing your own cast up front, you're "complying with the warranty terms" of Java generics: if a ClassCastException is raised, it will be associated with a cast in the source code, not an invisible cast inserted by the compiler.