Class Objects

You can get an object representing a class in one of a few ways.

The first is to write the name of the class followed by .class. This works if you know exactly the class you want to reflect on.

While this looks like accessing a field, it is technically its own special thing.

class Main {
    void main() {
        Class<String> stringClass = String.class;
        System.out.println(stringClass);
    }
}

Another is to call the getClass method on an object. This is a method available on java.lang.Object and so will work for anything.

This is what you will use if you don't know up front exactly what type of thing you will be reflecting over.

class Main {
    void main() {
        String s = "Hello";
        Class<?> stringClass = s.getClass();
        System.out.println(stringClass);
    }
}

These class objects have a generic parameter that can hold the class the class object represents.¹ When you don't know that information up front you should use a wildcard.