Create instance of generic type in Java?

Question

Is it possible to create an instance of a generic type in Java? I\'m thinking based on what I\'ve seen that the answer is no (due to type erasure), but

Answer 1

You can do this now and it doesn't require a bunch of reflection code.

import com.google.common.reflect.TypeToken;

public class Q26289147
{
    public static void main(final String[] args) throws IllegalAccessException, InstantiationException
    {
        final StrawManParameterizedClass smpc = new StrawManParameterizedClass() {};
        final String string = (String) smpc.type.getRawType().newInstance();
        System.out.format("string = \"%s\"",string);
    }

    static abstract class StrawManParameterizedClass
    {
        final TypeToken type = new TypeToken(getClass()) {};
    }
}

Of course if you need to call the constructor that will require some reflection, but that is very well documented, this trick isn't!

Here is the JavaDoc for TypeToken.