Java type argument is not within bounds of type variable

Question

I am trying to make a Class with a has-a relationship to a generic BST class and it constructs the tree by reading in a comma delimited file.

Here is my code:

public class PatientSearchTree<ItemType extends Comparable<ItemType>>
{
    BinarySearchTree<ItemType> patients;
    public PatientSearchTree(String fileName) throws IOException
    {      
         BinarySearchTree<String> lines = new BinarySearchTree<String>();
         BufferedReader reader = null;
      try {
             reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(fileName));
             patients = new BinarySearchTree<Patient>();
             String line = null;
          while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null)
          {
             line = reader.readLine(); 
             String[] params = line.split(",");
             Patient tempPatient = new Patient(params[0],params[1],params[2],params[3],params[4],params[5],params[6],params[7],params[8],params[9]);
             patients.add(tempPatient);
          }

         } finally {
         reader.close();
      }
    }

And my Error:

PatientSearchTree.java:21: error: type argument 
PatientSearchTree.Patient is not within bounds of type-variable ItemType
         patients = new BinarySearchTree<Patient>();
                                         ^
  where ItemType is a type-variable:
ItemType extends Comparable<ItemType> declared in class BinarySearchTree

Answer 1

The class Patient does not implement the interface Comparable<Patient>.