required java.util.ArrayList,found java.lang.Object : I do not understand the reason for this error

Question

Following are some snippets from a jsp page:

<%! ArrayList songList = new ArrayList(); %>

    <%
        songList = StoreSongLink.linkLis         


        

Answer 1

ArrayList is, as you probably know, a raw type, when not using parametrized ArrayList declaration. So you effectively turned it to array list of Object instead of String, with your initialization:
ArrayList songList = new ArrayList();