Creating an instance using the class name and calling constructor

Is there a way to create an instance of a particular class given the class name (dynamic) and pass parameters to its constructor.

Something like:

Object object = createInstance("mypackage.MyClass","MyAttributeValue");

Where "MyAttributeValue" is an argument to the constructor of MyClass.

Solution 1:

Yes, something like:

Class<?> clazz = Class.forName(className);
Constructor<?> ctor = clazz.getConstructor(String.class);
Object object = ctor.newInstance(new Object[] { ctorArgument });

That will only work for a single string parameter of course, but you can modify it pretty easily.

Note that the class name has to be a fully-qualified one, i.e. including the namespace. For nested classes, you need to use a dollar (as that's what the compiler uses). For example:

package foo;

public class Outer
{
    public static class Nested {}
}

To obtain the Class object for that, you'd need Class.forName("foo.Outer$Nested").

Solution 2:

You can use Class.forName() to get a Class object of the desired class.

Then use getConstructor() to find the desired Constructor object.

Finally, call newInstance() on that object to get your new instance.

Class<?> c = Class.forName("mypackage.MyClass");
Constructor<?> cons = c.getConstructor(String.class);
Object object = cons.newInstance("MyAttributeValue");

Solution 3:

You can use reflections

return Class.forName(className).getConstructor(String.class).newInstance(arg);

Solution 4:

If class has only one empty constructor (like Activity or Fragment etc, android classes):

Class<?> myClass = Class.forName("com.example.MyClass");    
Constructor<?> constructor = myClass.getConstructors()[0];