What does this Java generics paradigm do and what is it called?

Question

I\'m looking at some Java classes that have the following form:

public 
abstract
class A > implements Comparable  {

           


        

Answer 1

I believe it is usually just called a Recursive Generic Type. As Tom Hawtin points out, you probably want class A>. The most prominent use of this pattern is java.lang.Enum (which you probably knew considering you chose Comparable as your interface).