What is the name of this technique/syntax? Brand new to Java, going through the www.TeamTreeHouse.com Java course (it's great so far, btw). More and more I'm seeing something like the following:

    Map&lt;String, Integer&gt; myMap = new HashMap&lt;String, Integer&gt;();

or:

    List&lt;String&gt; myList = new ArrayList&lt;String&gt;();

What is the reason for creating an instance of one object (a Map or List), by using a different but similar object (HashMap or ArrayList)? If somebody could point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it.