What does > mean in Java?

Question

I\'m creating an interface of JOOQ TableRecord

> 

Would anyone be able to explain the line above?

Answer 1

It means a class of type R, that implements the interface TableRecord

TableRecord means that the interface is bound to the same type R.

An example would be a class like:

public class Bla implements TableRecord

I admit this seems a bit strange, but Java generics don't really differentiate between extends and implements, which leads to some confusion.

As to why this exact definition, I don't know enough about the context to see exactly why it makes sense, but it might be due to method signatures on the interface returning objects of type R (think Factory):

public R createTableRecord(...);