Class<T> class

The first good reason that springs to mind is the lack of an explicit cast (Foo) in:

Class<Foo> cls = Foo.class;

Foo f = cls.newInstance()

thus preventing mistakes like the following (pre-Generics)

Class cls = Date.class;

String s = (String) cls.newInstance();

Even if you don't know what sort of class you have, the Class.asSubclass method can be used in a nice way:

Class<?> cls = Class.forName(someFooSubclassName);

// The following is checked at runtime

Class<? extends Foo> fooCls = cls.asSubclass(Foo.class);

Foo f = fooCls.newInstance();

And not an 'unchecked' warning in sight...

Alex

AlexHudsa at 2007-7-12 9:06:15 >