Generics Question

[Krishna doddi]

public <T> List<T> meth(List<?> type)
{
System.out.println(type); // 1
return new ArrayList<String>(); // 2
}


Line 1 compiles fine.
Line 2 Fails. Reason : List Required

Cant we return a ArrayList where List is required???
I think we can return the subclass right.

Thanks
Siddharth

[Keith Lynn]

Actually the error message from the compiler is

found   : java.util.ArrayList<java.lang.String>
required: java.util.List<T>

It's not saying that you can't return an ArrayList.

It's saying it expects you to return a List whose elements are the type parameter T.