Get class of generic

Question

My class starts with

public abstract class LastActionHero<H extends Hero>(){

Now somewhere in the code I want to write H.class but that isn't possible (like String.class or Integer.class is).

Can you tell me how I can get the Class of the generic?

Answer 1

You can provide the type dynamically, however the compiler doesn't do this for you automagically.

public abstract class LastActionHero<H extends Hero>(){
    protected final Class<H> hClass;
    protected LastActionHero(Class<H> hClass) {
        this.hClass = hClass;
    }
    // use hClass how you like.
}

BTW: It not impossible to get this dynamically, but it depends on how it is used. e.g

public class Arnie extends LastActionHero<MuscleHero> { }

It is possible to determine that Arnie.class has a super class with a Generic parameter of MuscleHero.

public class Arnie<H extend Hero> extends LastActionHero<H> { }

The generic parameter of the super class will be just H in this case.