JSTL unable to retieve class of ArrayList

Question

Let's say that i add an attribute in the request scope like this :
request.setAttribute("myList", new ArrayList());
Why does the following code crashes?
<c:out value="${requestScope.myList.class.name}"/>
When the following doesn't :
<%= request.getAttribute("myList").getClass().getName() %>

Answer 1

Its not a bug, its a FEATURE! This is defined
functionality: JSTL is being helpful :-)Sorry but i don't understand how helpul that is. We could use backets to access elements in the list : ${myList[0]}. I thought period were reserved for accessing properties the "bean way". That forces the developer to handle exceptions when he writes generic code.
ie myList.0 would retrieve the first element in the
list.Well i tried this but it's not working either :
<c:out value="${myList.0}" /> generates the following error
javax.servlet.jsp.el.ELException: Encountered ".0", expected one of ["}", ".", ">", "gt", "<", "lt", "==", "eq", "<=", "le", ">=", "ge", "!=", "ne", "[", "+", "-", "*", "/", "div", "%", "mod", "and", "&&", "or", "||", "?"]
When you use ${myList.class} it tries to turn
"class" into an integer, fails miserably and throws
an error.Indeed it does :-(
So any idea how i could retrieve the className of all objects placed in requestScope without having to handle exception ??