Why HashTable does not support Generics

[Siamak Saarmann]

Hello,

Could someone please tell me what is the reason behind this? HashTable could at least use generics for the objects being stored in it.

Casting the objects (in HashTable.get method for example) ruins the code. It's a pity that in the middle of JSE1.5/1.6 we are forced to cast output objects of a collection.

Thank you

[Henry Wong]

Huh? ... The Hashtable class has been updated to support Generics with Java 5. Or are you referring to a specific feature?

Henry

[Siamak Saarmann]

I am now forced to use below code and the get method returns me "Object" which I need to cast to my own EnvRegion type.

private Hashtable hashEnvRegions = new Hashtable();

Now when I use :

private Hashtable<String,EnvRegion> hashEnvRegions = new Hashtable<String,EnvRegion>();

It gives this error:

The type HashTable is not generic, it cannot be parameterized with arguments <String,EnvRegion>.

Am I missing something? (I am using JSE1.6 for this project)

Mac

[Jim Yingst]

It's a bit suspicious when you keep talking about HashTable - there is no such class in the standard libraries. There is one called Hashtable though. You should have seen error messages about this. Have you created your own HashTable class?

The error message indicates your JDK knows what generics are, you it must be at least JDK 5. However the real Hashtable class certainly has been parameterized since JDK 5. I think you have a duplicate HashTable or Hashtable class somewhere. If you didn't create your own, check the classpath. Does it mention an older JDK for some reason?

Try this:

System.out.println(Hashtable.class + " is defined in: " + Hashtable.class.getResource("Hashtable.class"));

What do you get?
[ December 27, 2007: Message edited by: Jim Yingst ]

[Siamak Saarmann]

I am very sorry.

Eclipse had inserted below import command though java.util.* was present on my imports list:

import com.sun.org.apache.xalan.internal.xsltc.runtime.Hashtable;

Because eclipse folds the imports list I had not seen above strange import.

Sorry again.

[William Brogden]

Thanks for reporting the source of the problem. Future seekers who come across this thread will be grateful.

Bill

[Steve Page]

What a bizarre error! Thanks for the help...

[Steve Page]

OK, now I need help. When I run the suggested code, I get:

jar:file:/C:/Program%20Files/Java/jre1.6.0_06/lib/rt.jar!/com/sun/org/apache/xalan/internal/xsltc/runtime/Hashtable.class

Nevermind. I see that the default import is the problem, not the build path.

Thanks again for the resource suggestion.

[Campbell Ritchie]

Change the import to java.util.Hashtable.

Or better still, declare your object as a java.util.Map and then use java.util.HashMap.

What happens in Eclipse is that you enter the beginning of the name . . .Has . . . and push ctrl-space. Then you get a dropdown list of possible matches, and if you click on the xalan version (which may appear first) that's what you get. The options are in alphabetical order by class name and package name (I think), so com.something comes before java.something.