[java] What's the reason I can't create generic array types in Java?

If the class uses as a parameterized type, it can declare an array of type T[], but it cannot directly instantiate such an array. Instead, a common approach is to instantiate an array of type Object[], and then make a narrowing cast to type T[], as shown in the following:

  public class Portfolio<T> {
  T[] data;
 public Portfolio(int capacity) {
   data = new T[capacity];                 // illegal; compiler error
   data = (T[]) new Object[capacity];      // legal, but compiler warning
 }
 public T get(int index) { return data[index]; }
 public void set(int index, T element) { data[index] = element; }
}