I just recently heard of duck typing and I read the Wikipedia article about it, but I'm having a hard time translating the examples into Java, which would really help my understanding.
Would anyone be able to give a clear example of duck typing in Java and how I might possibly use it?
Java is by design not fit for duck typing. The way you might choose to do it is reflection:
public void doSomething(Object obj) throws Exception {
obj.getClass().getMethod("getName", new Class<?>[] {}).invoke(obj);
}
But I would advocate doing it in a dynamic language, such as Groovy, where it makes more sense:
class Duck {
quack() { println "I am a Duck" }
}
class Frog {
quack() { println "I am a Frog" }
}
quackers = [ new Duck(), new Frog() ]
for (q in quackers) {
q.quack()
}