Method chaining and casting

Question

I was wondering if anyone knows whether it is possible to somehow apply method chaining on an object that requires a cast.
For example:
ArrayList ar = new ArrayList();
ar.add(new Integer(3));
int i = ar.get(0).intValue();The third line obviously produces a compile error to the effect that you can't call method intValue() on object Object.
To get the int value from the ArrayList above I have to do the following:
ArrayList ar = new ArrayList();
ar.add(new Integer(3));
Integer intObject = (Integer)ar.get(0);
int i = intObject.intValue();Is it at all possible to get the int value somehow without explicitly creating an Integer object? Is there a possible way to combine method chaining and casting in this case?

Answer 1

You may combine the two lines by casting at the same time:
int i = ((Integer)ar.get(0)).intValue();
Notice the additional brackets to help the compiler understand the precedence of your intentions. It makes no sense if the compile tries to call intValue THEN cast to Integer.
When you call:
Integer intObject = (Integer)ar.get(0);
No Integer object is created, only a reference to the object is created. I'm not sure if an implicit reference is created in the previous example, but I see no substantial benefit using the first method. In fact I won't use it as its not very readable (to me).