why static generic method should have<T> in front of return type

[jacob deiter]

Why a generic static method have a in addition to return type, but a instance method not? public class Main {

public  static <T> T met(T t) {
    return t;
}

public  T met1(T t) {
    return t;
}
}

[ramesh suri]

<T> represent the type of object. Here it is any Object can be returned. Generics can be returned for non static methods too

[Rob Spoor]

Welcome to the Ranch, Ramesh Suri!

Jacob, the reason is quite simple - how else would you specify the generic type? Non-static methods can "inherit" the generic type from their instance, but static methods don't have an instance. But Ramesh Suri is right, non-static methods can also have a generic type of their own, also combined with the instance's generic type (as long as they have different names).

[Stephan van Hulst]

One such example is Stream.map(). The Stream class declares a generic type parameter T, but the map() instance method declares a second type parameter called R.