Doubt in Generics

[Jisha Anand]

Dear All,

The following is a question from K & B SCJP5.0 guide:

Given a method declared as:

public static <E extends Number> List<? super E> process(List<E> nums)  

A programmer wants to use this method like this:

// INSERT DECLARATIONS HERE
output = process(input); 

Which pair of declarations could be placed at // INSERT DECLARATIONS HERE to allow the code to compile? (Choose all that apply.)

A. ArrayList<Integer> input = null;
ArrayList<Integer> output = null;

B. ArrayList<Integer> input = null;
List<Integer> output = null;

C. ArrayList<Integer> input = null;
List<Number> output = null;

D. List<Number> input = null;
ArrayList<Integer> output = null;

E. List<Number> input = null;
List<Number> output = null;

F. List<Integer> input = null;
List<Integer> output = null;

G. None of the above.

Correct Answers given are: B, E, F

But I thought the answer would be 'G' because the method returns a List<? super E> where E is the element type of the List which was passed as argument to the method 'process' & hence if:
'input' is List<Integer> then 'output' should be a List<? super Integer>.
Someone please help me with this question I think I got confused somewhere; but dont understand where

I have actually posted the same under forum subtopic 'Java Certification', but i got confused over the replies I got; hence posting it again, sorry for the trouble.

Thanks in advance!

[Ulf Dittmer]

Please do not post the same question to multiple forums: CarefullyChooseOneForum

Let's continue the discussion in the original thread. If you have questions about some of the answers, post them there for clarification.