Question

Is it possible (or even advisable) to cast the element retrieved from a for each statement in the statement itself? I do know that each element in list will be of type <SubType>.

I.E.:

List<BaseType> list = DAO.getList();  
for(<SubType> element : list){ 
    // Cannot convert from element type <BaseType> to <SubType>
    ...
}

rather than:

List <BaseType> list = DAO.getList();
for(<BaseType> el : list){
    <SubType> element = (<SubType>)el;
    ...
}

Answer 1

Do you really know that each entry is going to be a subtype ? The DAO simply has to fulfill the List<BaseType> contract, and if you’re assuming a subclass, then I think something is wrong somewhere. I’d perhaps concentrate more on getting the interface to the DAO correct, and have it contractually return what you want.