how to get a class reference to parameterized type

Question

Is there any chance to assign to class reference the parameterized type eg.

    Class<Set>  c1= Set.class;   //OK
    Class<Set<Integer>> c2 = Set<Integer>.class; //Makes error

Answer 1

Using .class literal with a class name, or invoking getClass() method on an object returns the Class instance, and for any class there is one and only one Class instance associated with it.

Same holds true for a generic type. A class List<T> has only a single class instance, which is List.class. There won't be different class types for different type parameters. This is analogous to how C++ implements generics, where each generic type instantiation will have a separate Class instance. So in Java, you can't do Set<Integer>.class. Java doesn't allow that because it doesn't make sense, and might give wrong intentions about number of Class instances.

However, if you want a Class<Set<Integer>>, you can achieve that will a bit of type casting (which will be safe), as shown below:

Class<Set<Integer>> clazz = (Class<Set<Integer>>)(Class<?>) Set.class;

This will work perfectly fine.