com.fasterxml.jackson.core.type

Class TypeReference<T>

java.lang.Object

com.fasterxml.jackson.core.type.TypeReference<T>

All Implemented Interfaces:

java.lang.Comparable<TypeReference<T>>

public abstract class TypeReference<T>
extends java.lang.Object
implements java.lang.Comparable<TypeReference<T>>

This generic abstract class is used for obtaining full generics type information by sub-classing; it must be converted to ResolvedType implementation (implemented by JavaType from "databind" bundle) to be used. Class is based on ideas from http://gafter.blogspot.com/2006/12/super-type-tokens.html, Additional idea (from a suggestion made in comments of the article) is to require bogus implementation of Comparable (any such generic interface would do, as long as it forces a method with generic type to be implemented). to ensure that a Type argument is indeed given.

Usage is by sub-classing: here is one way to instantiate reference to generic type List<Integer>:

  TypeReference ref = new TypeReference<List<Integer>>() { };

which can be passed to methods that accept TypeReference, or resolved using TypeFactory to obtain ResolvedType.

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
int	compareTo(TypeReference<T> o) The only reason we define this method (and require implementation of Comparable) is to prevent constructing a reference without type information.
java.lang.reflect.Type	getType()

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

equals, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Method Detail

getType

public java.lang.reflect.Type getType()

compareTo

public int compareTo(TypeReference<T> o)

The only reason we define this method (and require implementation of Comparable) is to prevent constructing a reference without type information.

Specified by:

compareTo in interface java.lang.Comparable<TypeReference<T>>