Is there a Java array/list which is statically typed AND variable length

Question

This would be very handy as typecasting gets boring fast.

Answer 1

If you use generics (java 5), you can avoid all casting with

 List<String> myList = new ArrayList<String>();
 myList.add(" a test");
 String temp = myList.get(0);

Unless I am missing something in your question that should cover both needs.

Answer 2

I don't understand, what's so hard about:

List<Foo> fooList = new ArrayList<Foo>();

I guess you could define a class:

public class FooList extends ArrayList<Foo> {
    ...
}

if you want to avoid the angle brackets...

Answer 3

If by "variable length" you mean that the size will change over time, then you probably want a LinkedList rather than an ArrayList:

print("List<Foo> fooList = new LinkedList<Foo>();");

That way you get better performance when adding a bunch of elements.