Help with ArrayList Java

Generics must be fully specified at compile time rather than run time. So you can't use a variable as the generic parameter. Depending on how you want to use it, you could do something like ArrayList> arrayList. This allows any class type to be in the list. Then you can fill it with className's of different actual types.

Thank you megadan, I now have it reading the ArrayList using Class. Now my problem is adding elements to an ArrayList from ArrayList>.

Example:

ArrayList<Moves> moves;
ArrayList<Class<?>> importedMoves;

for (int x = 0; x < importedMoves.size(); x++){
moves.add(importedMoves.get(x));

Is there a way around this?

Thank you megadan, I now have it reading the ArrayList using Class. Now my problem is adding elements to an ArrayList from ArrayList>.

Example:

ArrayList<Moves> moves;
ArrayList<Class<?>> importedMoves;

for (int x = 0; x < importedMoves.size(); x++){
moves.add(importedMoves.get(x));

Is there a way around this?

Just remove the generics all together, it seems like you don't want type checking. This can cause problems in the future though (you'll need to type cast), and it'll also make the code harder to understand.

This code should theoretically work, however I haven't tested it ( getting ready for work as I type this message ) .

ArrayList <Object> Something = new ArrayList <Object>() ; 

"Object" is a generic that should be able to hold any kind of object .

It sounds like you want to take the class name from a file and instantiate objects of that class type. You can do the following:

Class<?> type = Class.forName("net.gamedev.SomeMoveClass");
Move move = (Move)type.newInstance();
moves.add(move);

If you need to pass arguments, you can use the getConstructor() method and attempt to call newInstance(/* ... */) on that.

You may want to do some sanity checking that the class does implement or extend the Move interface / superclass.

That said, this smells like possibly a more complex solution than you actually need. I'd have to understand the surrounding concepts a bit more to say for sure, but I'd guess there may be other, easier ways to do this.

This code should theoretically work, however I haven't tested it ( getting ready for work as I type this message ) .

ArrayList <Object> Something = new ArrayList <Object>() ; 

"Object" is a generic that should be able to hold any kind of Object .

Which is what ArrayList without the generics will result in, afaik

Thanks guys. The combination of using ArrayList