Class java.lang.Class
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Class java.lang.Class

java.lang.Object
   |
   +----java.lang.Class

public final class Class
extends Object
Class objects contain runtime representations of classes. Every object in the system is an instance of some class, and for each class there is one of these descriptor objects. A class descriptor is not modifiable at runtime.

The following example uses a Class object to print the class name of an object:

	void printClassName(Object obj) {
	    System.out.println("The class of " + obj +
			       " is " + obj.getClass().getName());
	}
Version:
1.14, 31 Jan 1995

forName(String)
Returns the runtime class descriptor for the specified class.
getClassLoader()
Returns the class loader of this class.
getInterfaces()
Returns the interfaces of this class.
getName()
Returns the name of this class.
getSuperclass()
Returns the superclass of this class.
isInterface()
Returns true if this class is an interface, false otherwise.
newInstance()
Creates an new instance of this class.
toString()
Returns the name of this class or this interface.

forName
  public static Class forName(String className)
Returns the runtime class descriptor for the specified class. For example the following code fragment returns the runtime class descriptor for the class named java.lang.Thread:
		Class t = Class.forName("java.lang.Thread")
Parameters:
className - the fully qualified name of the desired class
Returns:
the class
Throws: NoClassDefFoundException
the class could not be found

newInstance

  public Object newInstance()
Creates an new instance of this class.
Returns:
the new instance
Throws: IncompatibleTypeException
you can't instanciate interfaces
Throws: OutOfMemoryException
out of memory

getName

  public String getName()
Returns the name of this class.

getSuperclass

  public Class getSuperclass()
Returns the superclass of this class.

getInterfaces

  public Class getInterfaces()
Returns the interfaces of this class.
Returns:
the interfaces of this class, an array of length 0 is returned if the class implements no interfaces.

getClassLoader

  public ClassLoader getClassLoader()
Returns the class loader of this class.
Returns:
the class loader of this class, null is returned if the class has no class loader.
See Also:
ClassLoader

isInterface

  public boolean isInterface()
Returns true if this class is an interface, false otherwise.
Returns:
a boolean indicating whether this class is an interface

toString

  public String toString()
Returns the name of this class or this interface. The word "class" is prepended if it is a class; the word "interface is is prepended if it is an interface.
Returns:
a string representing this class or interface
Overrides:
toString in class Object


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