Java Programming

Hi!

I am trying to create a collection of numbers -- that is a list (i.e. an arrayList) that contains both Integers and Doubles. The idea is I don't know whether each element is a Double or an Integer. I determine the raw type value per element by passing it to an overloaded method getVal() which returns either an int from Integer.intValue() or a double from Double.doubleValue().

So, I create an arraylist ArrayList<Number>, add Integers and Doubles, but when I call getVal with an element of the arrayList I get a compile error. If I cast it to an Integer It's fine, but this defeats my purpose.

I'm misunderstanding something. Here is my code.

import java.util.ArrayList;

public class Test{

	public static int getVal(Integer x)	{
		return x.intValue();
	}
	
	public static double getVal(Double x)	{
		return x.doubleValue();
	}
	
	public static void main(String[] args){
		ArrayList<Number> numbers = new ArrayList<Number>();
		Integer x = new Integer(5);
		Double y = new Double(1.2);
		numbers.add(x);
		numbers.add(y);
		
		int intVal1 = getVal(x); //fine
		int intVal2 = getVal((Integer)numbers.get(0)); //fine
		int intVal2 = getVal(numbers.get(0)); //error, requires cast. why?
	}
}

Thanks in advance for any help. How else could I have a collection of Integers and Doubles?