Question

In a bunch o’ places in my code, I have something like this:

public Class mySpecialMethod() {   return MySpecialClass.class; } 

which causes the warning

Class is a raw type. References to generic type Class should be parameterized.

But, if I replace

Class

with

Class<? extends Object>

the warning goes away.

Is this simple practice ok, or could it cause trouble later?

Answer 1

It’s the correct thing to do only if there really is no common base class or interface that the Class object needs to represent.

Also Class<?> is effectively the same as Class<? extends Object>.