generics - What is the Collections.checkedList() call for in java?

Question

I just want to know for what java.util.Collections.checkedList() is actually used.

I have some code that I know is returning me a List<String> but it's being passed through a chain of messaging calls and returned to me as a java.io.Serializable. Is that checkedList call good for me to turn my Serializable into a List<String>? I know I can cast it to a java.util.List, but I'd rather not have to check each element and I'm not comfortable with assuming each element is a String.

Answer 1

Not quite:

Collections.checkedList will only decorate the list to prevent any future inserts with objects of the wrong class, it won't check all the elements that are already in the list.

However, you could make a new checkedList, and then call addAll and pass in the list you are unsure about - rather than writing the loop yourself.