Get generic type of java.util.List

Question

I have;

List stringList = new ArrayList();
List integerList = new ArrayList();

Is

Answer 1

Short answer: no.

This is probably a duplicate, can't find an appropriate one right now.

Java uses something called type erasure, which means at runtime both objects are equivalent. The compiler knows the lists contain integers or strings, and as such can maintain a type safe environment. This information is lost (on an object instance basis) at runtime, and the list only contain 'Objects'.

You CAN find out a little about the class, what types it might be parametrized by, but normally this is just anything that extends "Object", i.e. anything. If you define a type as

class  AClass {....}

AClass.class will only contain the fact that the parameter A is bounded by MyClass, but more than that, there's no way to tell.