Java: what do '<...>' mean?

I'm trying to read some Java code, and I'm not sure how to search this (it keeps bringing me to the inequality operators). So if I have a class extending the Iterable interface (correct me if I said that wrong though!) like so:

public interface Thing<T> extends Iterable<T> {  ...  }  

what does the <T> part of that mean? What is it's name (the thing someone could search the web for)? What would happen if that wasn't included (ie public interface Thing extends Iterable)?

And if I had something like (I believe it is a method?)

public static thing<double[]> otherthing(double[][] var, int maxDim, double maxVal, int div) {  ...  }  

Would this mean that there is a method called 'otherthing' which returns something of type thing<double[]>?

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66848603/java-what-do-mean March 29, 2021 at 12:01PM