Java Generics (Wildcards)

In your first question, <? extends T> and <? super T> are examples of bounded wildcards. An unbounded wildcard looks like <?>, and basically means <? extends Object>. It loosely means the generic can be any type. A bounded wildcard (<? extends T> or <? super T>) places a restriction on the type by saying that it either has to extend a specific type (<? extends T> is known as an upper bound), or has to be an ancestor of a specific type (<? super T> is known as a lower bound).

The Java Tutorials have some pretty good explanations of generics in the articles Wildcards and More Fun with Wildcards.

If you have a class hierarchy A, B is a subclass of A, and C and D are both subclasses of B like below

class A {}
class B extends A {}
class C extends B {}
class D extends B {}

Then

List<? extends A> la;
la = new ArrayList<B>();
la = new ArrayList<C>();
la = new ArrayList<D>();

List<? super B> lb;
lb = new ArrayList<A>(); //fine
lb = new ArrayList<C>(); //will not compile

public void someMethod(List<? extends B> lb) {
    B b = lb.get(0); // is fine
    lb.add(new C()); //will not compile as we do not know the type of the list, only that it is bounded above by B
}

public void otherMethod(List<? super B> lb) {
    B b = lb.get(0); // will not compile as we do not know whether the list is of type B, it may be a List<A> and only contain instances of A
    lb.add(new B()); // is fine, as we know that it will be a super type of A 
}

A bounded wildcard is like ? extends B where B is some type. That is, the type is unknown but a "bound" can be placed on it. In this case, it is bounded by some class, which is a subclass of B.

Josh Bloch also has a good explanation of when to use super and extends in this google io video talk where he mentions the Producer extends Consumer super mnemonic.

From the presentation slides:

Suppose you want to add bulk methods to Stack<E>

void pushAll(Collection<? extends E> src);

– src is an E producer

void popAll(Collection<? super E> dst);

– dst is an E consumer

learn by example:

consider the sort() method in Collections class which use both extends and super:

    public static <T extends Comparable<? super T>> void sort(List<T> list){...}

so

why <T extends Comparable<...>>: becuase we need list items (T) to be a subclass of the Comparable interface.

why Comparable<? super T>: becuase we allow the Comparable type to be a Comparable of any super type of T.

Consider

interface Comparable<T>{
    public int compareTo(T o);
}

public static <T extends Comparable<? super T>> void sort(List<T> list){...}


public static <T extends Comparable<T>> void sort2(List<T> list){...}


class A implements Comparable<A>{
    @Override
    public int compareTo(A o) {
        ...
    }
}

class B extends A {
}

    List<A> listA = new ArrayList<>();
    List<B> listB = new ArrayList<>();

    sort(listA);  //ok
    sort(listB);  //ok
    
    sort2(listA); //ok
    sort2(listB); //Error