java - LinkedHashMap casts -

i have following code

    // gets title, headers , data     string type = (string) responsemap.get("type");     string language = (string) responsemap.get("language");     string template = (string) responsemap.get("template");     string title = (string) responsemap.get("title");     list<map> header = (list<map>) responsemap.get("headers");     object[] rows = ((list<list>) responsemap.get("data")).toarray();      list list = new arraylist();     bean line = null;     linkedhashmap<string, object> hmap = null;      int j, i;      (j = 0; j < rows.length; j++) {         hmap = (linkedhashmap<string, object>) rows[j];         line = new bean();          (i = 1; < headers.length; i++) {             line.choosefield(i, headers, hmap);         }         list.add(line);     } 

in hmap = (linkedhashmap) rows[j]; line eclipse says

 java.lang.classcastexception: java.util.arraylist cannot cast java.util.linkedhashmap 

i don't understand error because used piece of code (with warnings worked) before in class.

public string generatereport(string[] headers, object[] data,         string language, string template, string title, string type)         throws jrexception, sqlexception, ioexception {      int j, i;      (j = 0; j < data.length; j++) {         hmap = (linkedhashmap<string, object>) data[j];         line = new bean();          (i = 1; < headers.length; i++) {             line.choosefield(i, headers, hmap);         }         list.add(line);     } 

why can't cast now? using windows , jdk1.6

in second case, hmap = (linkedhashmap<string, object>) data[j];, worked because data[j] contains linkedhashmap<string, object>. in order verify can put thing other linkedhashmap<string, object> in object[] data in second code snippet. same java.lang.classcastexception.

in first code snippet, can instanceof check before perform blind type casting. avoiding java.lang.classcastexception.