Why compiler is failing to infer return type of my method?

Question

Here's my code .Basically I trying to return a Map from my `intToEnumMap` method.But compiler is not allowing this.Why can't the compiler infer the return type for my method? ``` public enum INVALIDTHRESHOLDSTATE{ ONE(0,GAUGE_MIN_LOWER_THRESHOLD1_MESSAGE), TWO(1,GAUGE_THRESHOLD1_LOWER_THRESHOLD2_MESSAGE), THREE(2,GAUGE_THRESHOLD2_LOWER_MAX_MESSAGE); private static final Map intToEnum = new HashMap(); static { int i=0; for (INVALIDTHRESHOLDSTATE invalidState : values()){ i++; intToEnum.put(Integer.valueOf(i), invalidState); } } private int value; private String message; private INVALIDTHRESHOLDSTATE(int value,String message){ this.value = value; this.message = message; } public int getValue() { return value; } public String getString() { return message; } // Generic method public static Map intToEnumMap() { return intToEnum; //doesn't compile ^^^^^^^^^ } } ```

Accepted Answer

You've created a generic method, so anyone could call: ``` Map map = INVALIDTHRESHOLDSTATE. intToEnumMap(); ``` I assume that's not what you intended - if you're returning `intToEnum` it looks to me like you don't want the callers to specify generic type arguments at all, and it should just be: ``` public static Map intToEnumMap() { return intToEnum; } ``` (I'd also strongly suggest renaming your enum to follow normal Java naming conventions, but that's a different matter.)

Why compiler is failing to infer return type of my method?

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