Java Generics Made Easy(Part 1) | Comparable, Generic Methods & Type Bounds Explained

Generics are one of the most powerful — and misunderstood — parts of Java. This lecture clears the confusion and shows you how to use them the right way with real, practical examples.


Why Generics Exist: type safety, cleaner code, no unchecked casts, better IDE support

Comparable Interface and Sorting (11.1):

How to implement the Comparable interface for custom ordering

Sorting ArrayLists with Collections.sort and list.sort

Writing consistent compareTo and equals methods

Real examples: Student sorted by GPA, Book sorted by title and year

Generic Methods (11.2):

Declaring type parameters at the method level

Type inference in action

Utility examples: swap, firstOrDefault, printAll

Type Bounds (11.3):

Restricting types with upper bounds and multiple bounds

The Comparable pattern for max and min methods

Using bounds to unlock numeric operations and comparisons

Pitfalls covered:

Raw types vs parameterized types

Integer subtraction overflow in compareTo

Misusing Number with arithmetic operators

By the end of this video, you’ll be able to:

Implement Comparable and sort collections safely

Write and call your own generic helper methods

Use type bounds to enforce rules and unlock behavior

This lecture gives you the foundation to write safer, reusable, and cleaner Java code with generics.