Question

I have List<Zones> and List<Locations> and i am passing it to a generic function…

public String checkListType(List<?> checkList){
    // Now here I want to check if list is of type locations than
        return "locations"
    else {
        return "Zones";
    }
} 

Answer 1

This looks like an XY problem. I’ll answer it as asked, but if you provide more information about what you’re trying to do, I may have a better answer for you.

Generics in Java are not available at runtime; http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/java/generics/erasure.html

You have a few options. You could pass the class into the method.

public <T> String checkListType(Class<T> clazz, List<T> checklist) {
   if ("Locations".equals(clazz.getName()) {
   } else if (...) {
   }
}

You could also use reflection to identify the type of the first element.

public String checkListType(List<?> checkList) {
   if (!checkList.isEmpty()) {
       Class<?> itemClass = checkList.get(0).getClass();
       if ("Locations".rquals(clazz.getName()) {
          ...
       }
   }
}