passing class type as parameter and creating instance of it

Question

I want to pass a class type as a parameter to a method in java.all of which have the same constructor parameter.and create an instance of that Class in that method.is this possible?

Update after some years: do checkout Sapnesh Naik's answer to this, it seems to be the most up-to-date. I have not accepted is as an answer as I do not have a running java stack.
P.S: Give me a shout if you can verify.

Answer 1

Using reflection to create the instance:

Object obj = clazz.newInstance();

This will use the default no-arg constructor to create the instance.

Constructor<?> constructor = clazz.getConstructor(String.class);
Object object = constructor.newInstance(new Object[] { strArgument });

To create the instance if you have some other constructor which takes arguments.

Answer 2

newInstance() is Deprecated.

This method propagates any exception thrown by the nullary constructor, including a checked exception. Use of this method effectively bypasses the compile-time exception checking that would otherwise be performed by the compiler. The Constructor.newInstance method avoids this problem by wrapping any exception thrown by the constructor in a (checked) java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException.

The deprecated call:

clazz.newInstance()

Can be replaced by:

clazz.getDeclaredConstructor().newInstance()

Example:

void MyMethod(Class type) throws InstantiationException, IllegalAccessException {
    type.getDeclaredConstructor().newInstance();
}