Java™ How to Program, Seventh Edition

18.4. Additional Compile-Time Translation Issues: Methods That Use a Type Parameter as the Return Type

Let’s consider a generic method example in which type parameters are used in the return type and in the parameter list (Fig. 18.5). The application uses a generic method maximum to determine and return the largest of its three arguments of the same type. Unfortunately, the relational operator > cannot be used with reference types. However, it is possible to compare two objects of the same class if that class implements the generic interface Comparable< T > (package java.lang). All the type-wrapper classes for primitive types implement this interface. Like generic classes, generic interfaces enable programmers to specify, with a single interface ...