How can I instantiate a generic array type in java?

Question

I have a problem with instantiating a generic type array, here is my code:

public final class MatrixOperations<T extends Number>
{
    /**
 * <p>This method gets the transpose of any matrix passed in to it as argument</p>
 * @param matrix This is the matrix to be transposed
 * @param rows  The number of rows in this matrix
 * @param cols  The number of columns in this matrix
 * @return The transpose of the matrix
 */
public T[][] getTranspose(T[][] matrix, int rows, int cols)
{
    T[][] transpose = new T[rows][cols];//Error: generic array creation
    for(int x = 0; x < cols; x++)
    {
        for(int y = 0; y < rows; y++)
        {
            transpose[x][y] = matrix[y][x];
        }
    }
    return transpose;
}
}

I just want this method to be able to transpose a matrix that it's class is a subtype of Number and return the transpose of the matrix in the specified type. Anybody's help would be highly appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

You can use java.lang.reflect.Array to dynamically instantiate an Array of a given type. You just have to pass in the Class object of that desired type, something like this:

public T[][] getTranspose(Class<T> arrayType, T[][] matrix, int rows, int cols)
{

    T[][] transpose = (T[][]) Array.newInstance(arrayType, rows,cols);
    for (int x = 0; x < cols; x++)
    {
        for (int y = 0; y < rows; y++)
        {
            transpose[x][y] = matrix[y][x];
        }
    }
    return transpose;
}

public static void main(String args[]) {
    MatrixOperations<Integer> mo = new MatrixOperations<>();
    Integer[][] i = mo.getTranspose(Integer.class, new Integer[2][2], 2, 2);
    i[1][1] = new Integer(13);  
}