I try to instantiate the inner class defined in the following Java code:
public class Mother {
public class Child {
public void doStuff() {
// ...
}
}
}
When I try to get an instance of Child like this
Class<?> clazz= Class.forName(\"com.mycompany.Mother$Child\");
Child c = clazz.newInstance();
I get this exception:
java.lang.InstantiationException: com.mycompany.Mother$Child
at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Class.java:340)
at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:308)
...
What am I missing ?
There\'s an extra \"hidden\" parameter, which is the instance of the enclosing class. You\'ll need to get at the constructor using Class.getDeclaredConstructor
and then supply an instance of the enclosing class as an argument. For example:
// All exception handling omitted!
Class<?> enclosingClass = Class.forName(\"com.mycompany.Mother\");
Object enclosingInstance = enclosingClass.newInstance();
Class<?> innerClass = Class.forName(\"com.mycompany.Mother$Child\");
Constructor<?> ctor = innerClass.getDeclaredConstructor(enclosingClass);
Object innerInstance = ctor.newInstance(enclosingInstance);
EDIT: Alternatively, if the nested class doesn\'t actually need to refer to an enclosing instance, make it a nested static class instead:
public class Mother {
public static class Child {
public void doStuff() {
// ...
}
}
}
This code create inner class instance.
Class childClass = Child.class;
String motherClassName = childClass.getCanonicalName().subSequence(0, childClass.getCanonicalName().length() - childClass.getSimpleName().length() - 1).toString();
Class motherClassType = Class.forName(motherClassName) ;
Mother mother = motherClassType.newInstance()
Child child = childClass.getConstructor(new Class[]{motherClassType}).newInstance(new Object[]{mother});