The best safe way is to implement an AbstractList and cast items in implementation. I created ListUtil helper class:
public class ListUtil
{
public static <TCastTo, TCastFrom extends TCastTo> List<TCastTo> convert(final List<TCastFrom> list)
{
return new AbstractList<TCastTo>() {
@Override
public TCastTo get(int i)
{
return list.get(i);
}
@Override
public int size()
{
return list.size();
}
};
}
public static <TCastTo, TCastFrom> List<TCastTo> cast(final List<TCastFrom> list)
{
return new AbstractList<TCastTo>() {
@Override
public TCastTo get(int i)
{
return (TCastTo)list.get(i);
}
@Override
public int size()
{
return list.size();
}
};
}
}
You can use cast method to blindly cast objects in list and convert method for safe casting.
Example:
void test(List<TestA> listA, List<TestB> listB)
{
List<TestB> castedB = ListUtil.cast(listA); // all items are blindly casted
List<TestB> convertedB = ListUtil.<TestB, TestA>convert(listA); // wrong cause TestA does not extend TestB
List<TestA> convertedA = ListUtil.<TestA, TestB>convert(listB); // OK all items are safely casted
}