How to obtain class instance of generic argument type

Question

In code, if I write a code line like this:

GClass<Double> x = new GClass<Double>();

And let say, that the class is like this:

public static class GClass<T> {
  private T value = null;
  public GClass() {
    // What is T? 
  }
}

Where I inserted the question "What is T?", I don't want the value (that is null), but its type (that is Double).

in what case would you need to do that? Surely the client that instantiates gClass would be aware of it's parameterised type anyway? — Robert, Sep 03 '09 at 09:43

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 03 '09 at 09:38

You can't find out T at execution time unless you add a constructor parameter to take Class<T> parameter and pass call it with Double.class in your case. You can then store that class and use it later.

This is due to type erasure... basically generics are just compiler magic to insert appropriate casts and check that things should be okay.

See the Type Erasure section of the excellent Java Generics FAQ.

You might also want to read Neal Gafter's blog posts about super type tokens and type literals.

How to obtain class instance of generic argument type

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