Java CE options are visible every time you attempt to reverse source code. This section describes the Resolve collection generic option for Java-specific options. Other options are common for all languages and are described in Reverse Options.

Resolve collection generics option

By default, this option is selected in the Reverse Options dialog. Java introduced parameterized types in JLS 3 and added type variables to all Java collections. With reverse engineering, it is possible to find which type is in a Java collection and make associations directly to the contained type, instead of the Java collection.

Reverse engineering allows you to find a Java parameterized collection and retrieves the Java type used in a container. This type is set as a Type to the UML Property. The container type is set to the UML Property/Java language property “Container“ as a simple string.

public class Test 
{ 
    java.util.List<String> attribute; 
} 

Collection type in UML Property specification

Note, that $$type$$ shows where it should be in the lined UML Property type on code generation.