Java generics

Prior to Java 5, there are a lot of casting in collections, since in collection you add objects and cast the object you get back from collection. Provides compile-time type safety for collections and eliminates the pain of casting, without having ClassCastException. Generics creates strongly typed classes to do generic operation.

Vector v = new Vector();
v.add("hello");
v.add(new Integer(1));
v.add(new HashTable());

String s = (String)v.get(0);

• Performs strongly type check in compile time
• Eliminates casting
• Enable programmers to implement generic algorithms, which can be used on different types.