Is it possible to create a class of "Class Objects" in java?

Question

Is it possible to create a class that contains objects of the type Class? I know that the class java.lang.class is final and cannot have sub classes.

Answer 1

Class is an Object just like String or Integer. As such, you could keep a collection of Class objects in a List, for example.

public class ClassTest {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Collection<Class> classes = new ArrayList<>(3);
    classes.add(String.class);
    classes.add(Integer.class);
    classes.add(ClassTest.class);

    for (Class storedClass : classes) {
      System.out.println(storedClass.getSimpleName());
    }
  }

}

This returns

String
Integer
ClassTest

If you want to keep these Class references within your own class, you can save the values within the instance (or static) fields and return these as appropriate to your needs, e.g.

public void ClassStore {
  private Class myFavouriteClass; // Set in constructor or setter method
  private List<Class> otherClasses; // Set in constructor or setter method

  ...

  public Class getMyFavouriteClass() {
    return myFavouriteClass;
  }

  public List<Class> getOtherClasses() {
    return otherClasses;
  }
}