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

There are various libraries that can resolve E for you using techniques similar to what the Robertson article discussed. Here's an implemenation of createContents that uses TypeTools to resolve the raw class represented by E:

E createContents() throws Exception {
  return TypeTools.resolveRawArgument(SomeContainer.class, getClass()).newInstance();
}

This assumes that getClass() resolves to a subclass of SomeContainer and will fail otherwise since the actual parameterized value of E will have been erased at runtime if it's not captured in a subclass.