What is raw types in Java?

In Java, raw types are the generic types that are used without any type parameters. They allow you to work with generic classes or interfaces without specifying the particular type of objects that they hold. This feature was introduced to maintain backward compatibility with earlier versions of Java that did not support generics. Although raw types enable flexibility, using them is generally discouraged because it can lead to type safety issues and a loss of compile-time type checking.

Example of Raw Types

// Raw type usage in Java List rawList = new ArrayList(); // raw type declaration rawList.add("Hello"); rawList.add(123); // No compile-time error, but this can lead to runtime issues // A safer approach would be to use generics List safeList = new ArrayList(); safeList.add("Hello"); // safeList.add(123); // This would cause a compile-time error

raw types generics Java type safety ArrayList