Static method in a generic class?

Question

You can't use a class's generic type parameters in static methods or static fields. The class's type parameters are only in scope for instance methods and instance fields. For static fields and static methods, they are shared among all instances of the class, even instances of different type parameters, so obviously they cannot depend on a particular type parameter.

It doesn't seem like your problem should require using the class's type parameter. If you describe what you are trying to do in more detail, maybe we can help you find a better way to do it.

Java doesn't know what T is until you instantiate a type.

Maybe you can execute static methods by calling Clazz<T>.doit(something) but it sounds like you can't.

The other way to handle things is to put the type parameter in the method itself:

static <U> void doIt(U object)

which doesn't get you the right restriction on U, but it's better than nothing....

I ran into this same problem. I found my answer by downloading the source code for Collections.sort in the java framework. The answer I used was to put the <T> generic in the method, not in the class definition.

So this worked:

public class QuickSortArray  {
    public static <T extends Comparable> void quickSort(T[] array, int bottom, int top){
//do it
}

}

Of course, after reading the answers above I realized that this would be an acceptable alternative without using a generic class:

public static void quickSort(Comparable[] array, int bottom, int top){
//do it
}

I think this syntax has not been mentionned yet (in the case you want a method without arguments) :

class Clazz {
  static <T> T doIt() {
    // shake that booty
  }
}

And the call :

String str = Clazz.<String>doIt();

Hope this help someone.

It is possible to do what you want by using the syntax for generic methods when declaring your doIt() method (notice the addition of <T> between static and void in the method signature of doIt()):

class Clazz<T> {
  static <T> void doIt(T object) {
    // shake that booty
  }
}

I got Eclipse editor to accept the above code without the Cannot make a static reference to the non-static type T error and then expanded it to the following working program (complete with somewhat age-appropriate cultural reference):

public class Clazz<T> {
  static <T> void doIt(T object) {
    System.out.println("shake that booty '" + object.getClass().toString()
                       + "' !!!");
  }

  private static class KC {
  }

  private static class SunshineBand {
  }

  public static void main(String args[]) {
    KC kc = new KC();
    SunshineBand sunshineBand = new SunshineBand();
    Clazz.doIt(kc);
    Clazz.doIt(sunshineBand);
  }
}

Which prints these lines to the console when I run it:

shake that booty 'class com.eclipseoptions.datamanager.Clazz$KC' !!!
shake that booty 'class com.eclipseoptions.datamanager.Clazz$SunshineBand' !!!

It is correctly mentioned in the error: you cannot make a static reference to non-static type T. The reason is the type parameter T can be replaced by any of the type argument e.g. Clazz<String> or Clazz<integer> etc. But static fields/methods are shared by all non-static objects of the class.

The following excerpt is taken from the doc:

A class's static field is a class-level variable shared by all non-static objects of the class. Hence, static fields of type parameters are not allowed. Consider the following class:

public class MobileDevice<T> {
    private static T os;

    // ...
}

If static fields of type parameters were allowed, then the following code would be confused:

MobileDevice<Smartphone> phone = new MobileDevice<>();
MobileDevice<Pager> pager = new MobileDevice<>();
MobileDevice<TabletPC> pc = new MobileDevice<>();

Because the static field os is shared by phone, pager, and pc, what is the actual type of os? It cannot be Smartphone, Pager, and TabletPC at the same time. You cannot, therefore, create static fields of type parameters.

As rightly pointed out by chris in his answer you need to use type parameter with the method and not with the class in this case. You can write it like:

static <E> void doIt(E object)