ever saw this?

    public  T[] toArray(T[] a) {
        if (a.length < size)
            // Make a new array of a's runtime type, but my contents:
            return (T[]) Arrays.copyOf(elementData, size, a.getClass());
	System.arraycopy(elementData, 0, a, 0, size);
        if (a.length > size)
            a[size] = null;
        return a;
    }

That's from Java's ArrayList class.