11. The syntax for specifying the type of elements in a collection

• 
  CollectionClass<ElementType> collectionName = 
      new CollectionClass<ElementType>();
  
  

• Note that

  
      CollectionClass<ElementType>
  
  

  syntax specifies that the interface is generic.

• Generic interface requires that the type of object contained in the collection (the element type) is specified when the CollectionClass is instantiated.

• In other words, the type of the element of the container becomes known to the compiler, making your program much safer.

• For example,

  
      List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
      list.add("hello");
      String s = list.get(0);