issue with java 8 collectors Type mismatch: cannot convert from List<Object> to List<String>

Well I have also faced similar kind of error Type mismatch: cannot convert from Set<Object> to Set<String> recently. Below is the code snippet-:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    String[] arr = new String[]{"i", "came", "i", "saw", "i", "left"};
    
    Set<String> set = Arrays.asList(arr).stream().collect(Collectors.toSet());
    
    System.out.println(set.size() + "  distinct words: " + set);
}

Here is the screen shot for reference-:

Now let me explain why was I getting this error? In my case code was displaying compile time error because there was mismatch in compiler version in project properties. I had selected 1.7 but it should be 1.8 since this feature has been added in 1.8.

So please make a note of below points-:

1. Appropriate JDK has been selected in Java Build Path. e.g. JDK 1.8 in this case.
2. Appropriate compiler version must be selected under Java Compiler (as displayed in above screenshot) in project properties. e.g. 1.8

I hope this would help you.

I checked the following complete example:

import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.util.stream.Collectors;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.ArrayList;

public class Test { 
    public List<String> test(ResultSet res) throws SQLException {
        List<String> instList = new ArrayList<String>();

        while (res.next()) {
            instList.add(res.getString("INST").toString());
        }           

        List<String> instListF = instList.stream().distinct().collect(Collectors.toList());
        return instListF;
    }
}

It compiles perfectly with javac 8u25, 8u40, 8u60, 8u71 (note that 8u71 is the security update of 8u66, thus essentially the same). Try to clean your project and rebuild from scratch.