question regarding overloaded methods vs generics

[Dinuka Arsakularatne]

i just finished reading the generics and colletion chapter of the SCJP study guide. after reading that i figured that without using overloaded methods you can use generics to make one method accept many different types. am i correct? and the other thing is if you declare a method such as

public <T extends Number> Integer test(T in){

return in;
}
and if i pass a Float or a Double will it convert it to a Integer and return the value?


thank you.

[Stephen O'Kane]

not being a complete expert, I can only suggest you take my opinion with a pinch of salt.

I believe that when you pass in a Float or Double it won't cause a problem, but when you try to return that value you passed in, it will cause a comiler failure, as Float or Double ain't an Integer.

if you pass in a Float, you should imagine the method like this

public Integer test(Float in){
    return in;
}

you cannot return a Float when an Integer is expected

Sok