Are generics removed by the compiler at compile time

Question

In this tutorial on reflection it states:

[...] because generics are implemented via type erasure which removes all information regarding generic typ

Answer 1

Some generics stay in the compiled class -- specifically including method signatures and class definitions, for example. At runtime, no objects keep their full generic type, but even at runtime you can look up the generic definition of a class or a method.

For example, if you have

class Foo {
  List getList() { ... }

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println(Foo.class.getMethod("getList").getGenericReturnType());
    // prints "List"
    List list = new Foo().getList();
    // there is no way to get the "String" parameter on list
}