Why does this java 8 stream operation evaluate to Object instead of List<Object> or just List?

Question

I\'m working with a 3d party library, and they return Collections that lack type specifications (e.g. public List getFoo();) , and I\'m trying to convert their

Answer 1

Collectors.toList() returns a List, not an ArrayList. This will compile:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    ArrayList l = getRawArrayList();
    List l2 = l.stream().map(Object::toString).collect(Collectors.toList());

}