Get generic type of class at runtime

Question

How can I achieve this?

public class GenericClass
{
    public Type getMyType()
    {
        //How do I return the type of T?
    }
}

Answer 1

Technique described in this article by Ian Robertson works for me.

In short quick and dirty example:

 public abstract class AbstractDAO
 {
    /**
     * Method returns class implementing EntityInterface which was used in class
     * extending AbstractDAO
     *
     * @return Class
     */
    public Class returnedClass()
    {
        return (Class) getTypeArguments(AbstractDAO.class, getClass()).get(0);
    }

    /**
     * Get the underlying class for a type, or null if the type is a variable
     * type.
     *
     * @param type the type
     * @return the underlying class
     */
    public static Class getClass(Type type)
    {
        if (type instanceof Class) {
            return (Class) type;
        } else if (type instanceof ParameterizedType) {
            return getClass(((ParameterizedType) type).getRawType());
        } else if (type instanceof GenericArrayType) {
            Type componentType = ((GenericArrayType) type).getGenericComponentType();
            Class componentClass = getClass(componentType);
            if (componentClass != null) {
                return Array.newInstance(componentClass, 0).getClass();
            } else {
                return null;
            }
        } else {
            return null;
        }
    }

    /**
     * Get the actual type arguments a child class has used to extend a generic
     * base class.
     *
     * @param baseClass the base class
     * @param childClass the child class
     * @return a list of the raw classes for the actual type arguments.
     */
    public static  List> getTypeArguments(
            Class baseClass, Class childClass)
    {
        Map resolvedTypes = new HashMap();
        Type type = childClass;
        // start walking up the inheritance hierarchy until we hit baseClass
        while (!getClass(type).equals(baseClass)) {
            if (type instanceof Class) {
                // there is no useful information for us in raw types, so just keep going.
                type = ((Class) type).getGenericSuperclass();
            } else {
                ParameterizedType parameterizedType = (ParameterizedType) type;
                Class rawType = (Class) parameterizedType.getRawType();

                Type[] actualTypeArguments = parameterizedType.getActualTypeArguments();
                TypeVariable[] typeParameters = rawType.getTypeParameters();
                for (int i = 0; i < actualTypeArguments.length; i++) {
                    resolvedTypes.put(typeParameters[i], actualTypeArguments[i]);
                }

                if (!rawType.equals(baseClass)) {
                    type = rawType.getGenericSuperclass();
                }
            }
        }

        // finally, for each actual type argument provided to baseClass, determine (if possible)
        // the raw class for that type argument.
        Type[] actualTypeArguments;
        if (type instanceof Class) {
            actualTypeArguments = ((Class) type).getTypeParameters();
        } else {
            actualTypeArguments = ((ParameterizedType) type).getActualTypeArguments();
        }
        List> typeArgumentsAsClasses = new ArrayList>();
        // resolve types by chasing down type variables.
        for (Type baseType : actualTypeArguments) {
            while (resolvedTypes.containsKey(baseType)) {
                baseType = resolvedTypes.get(baseType);
            }
            typeArgumentsAsClasses.add(getClass(baseType));
        }
        return typeArgumentsAsClasses;
    }
  }