how to get a constant in java with class

Question

basically I need to get a constant for a class however I have no instance of the object but only its class. In PHP I would do constant(XYZ); Is there a similar way

Answer 1

If you don't want to actually load or initialize the class, ClassGraph can do this:

String fieldVal;
try (ScanResult scanResult =
        new ClassGraph().whitelistClasses(className).enableFieldInfo().scan()) {
    fieldVal = (String) scanResult.getClassInfo(className).getFieldInfo("s")
            .getConstantInitializerValue();
}

N.B. this works only for constant initializer values (values that can be computed without object instantiation, with the exception of String), assigned to static final fields. The compiler can produce a constant at compiletime for simple arithmetic and simple string concatenation.

(disclaimer, I am the author of ClassGraph)

Simply using reflection to access static fields is simpler, if you don't mind loading the class, as given in this other answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/4076792/3950982