generics - java: HashMap<String, int> not working

Question

HashMap<String, int> doesn't seem to work but HashMap<String, Integer> does work. Any ideas why?

Answer 1

You can't use primitive types as generic arguments in Java. Use instead:

Map<String, Integer> myMap = new HashMap<String, Integer>();

With auto-boxing/unboxing there is little difference in the code. Auto-boxing means you can write:

myMap.put("foo", 3);

instead of:

myMap.put("foo", new Integer(3));

Auto-boxing means the first version is implicitly converted to the second. Auto-unboxing means you can write:

int i = myMap.get("foo");

instead of:

int i = myMap.get("foo").intValue();

The implicit call to intValue() means if the key isn't found it will generate a NullPointerException, for example:

int i = myMap.get("bar"); // NullPointerException

The reason is type erasure. Unlike, say, in C# generic types aren't retained at runtime. They are just "syntactic sugar" for explicit casting to save you doing this:

Integer i = (Integer)myMap.get("foo");

To give you an example, this code is perfectly legal:

Map<String, Integer> myMap = new HashMap<String, Integer>();
Map<Integer, String> map2 = (Map<Integer, String>)myMap;
map2.put(3, "foo");