Question

Is there a way/tool to auto convert Java source code from using raw types to using generic types?

I have some legacy code with 677 references to raw types:

ArrayList   47
Vector      420
Hashtable   61
Enumeration 64
Class       7
Iterator    78
TOTAL       677

Now I could manually look through the code to infer the generic types and replace, but that is going to take a long time.

Answer 1

Eclipse does have an ‘infer generic types’ refactoring tool (I don’t know if it will process multiple classes in a single hit, but probably).

Replaces raw type occurrences of
generic types by parameterized types
after identifying all places where
this replacement is possible.
Available: Projects, packages, and
types Options: ‘Assume clone()
returns an instance of the receiver
type’. Well-behaved classes generally
respect this rule, but if you know
that your code violates it, uncheck
the box.

‘Leave unconstrained type arguments
raw (rather than inferring )’. If
there are no constraints on the
elements of e.g. ArrayList a, uncheck
this box will cause Eclipse to still
provide a wildcard parameter,
replacing the reference with
ArrayList.