Instantiating a generic class in Java [duplicate]

Solution 1:

One option is to pass in Bar.class (or whatever type you're interested in - any way of specifying the appropriate Class<T> reference) and keep that value as a field:

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IllegalAccessException,
            InstantiationException {
        Generic<Bar> x = new Generic<>(Bar.class);
        Bar y = x.buildOne();
    }
}

public class Generic<T> {
    private Class<T> clazz;

    public Generic(Class<T> clazz) {
        this.clazz = clazz;
    }

    public T buildOne() throws InstantiationException, IllegalAccessException {
        return clazz.newInstance();
    }
}

public class Bar {
    public Bar() {
        System.out.println("Constructing");
    }
}

Another option is to have a "factory" interface, and you pass a factory to the constructor of the generic class. That's more flexible, and you don't need to worry about the reflection exceptions.

Solution 2:

And this is the Factory implementation, as Jon Skeet suggested:

interface Factory<T> {
    T factory();
}

class Araba {
    //static inner class for Factory<T> implementation
    public static class ArabaFactory implements Factory<Araba> {
        public Araba factory() {
            return new Araba();
        }
    }
    public String toString() { return "Abubeee"; }
}

class Generic<T> {
    private T var;

    Generic(Factory<T> fact) {
        System.out.println("Constructor with Factory<T> parameter");
        var = fact.factory();
    }
    Generic(T var) {
        System.out.println("Constructor with T parameter");
        this.var = var;
    }
    T get() { return var; }
}

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] string) {
        Generic<Araba> gen = new Generic<Araba>(new Araba.ArabaFactory());
        System.out.print(gen.get());
    }
}

Output:

Constructor with Factory<T> parameter
Abubeee

Solution 3:

Here's a rather contrived way to do it without explicitly using an constructor argument. You need to extend a parameterized abstract class.

public class Test {   
    public static void main(String [] args) throws Exception {
        Generic g = new Generic();
        g.initParameter();
    }
}

import java.lang.reflect.ParameterizedType;
public abstract class GenericAbstract<T extends Foo> {
    protected T parameter;

    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    void initParameter() throws Exception, ClassNotFoundException, 
        InstantiationException {
        // Get the class name of this instance's type.
        ParameterizedType pt
            = (ParameterizedType) getClass().getGenericSuperclass();
        // You may need this split or not, use logging to check
        String parameterClassName
            = pt.getActualTypeArguments()[0].toString().split("\\s")[1];
        // Instantiate the Parameter and initialize it.
        parameter = (T) Class.forName(parameterClassName).newInstance();
    }
}

public class Generic extends GenericAbstract<Foo> {
}

public class Foo {
    public Foo() {
        System.out.println("Foo constructor...");
    }
}