Categories: Java

Here’s a simple snippet of Java code which takes an object which has an ancestor type like interface Base<T,V>, and returns the actual type of T or V (eg Integer).

Yes, Java’s “type erasure” does introduce a small limitation: the object must have been declared as an instance of some non-generic type, eg new Foo, not new Foo<String>. In other words, it doesn’t work for generic type-parameters specified “inline” with the object instantiation. However in many cases this is fine.

My particular use-case for this was as follows:

• a generic base class has type parameter <T>, and defines a protected method
• at runtime, some object whose type descends from that base type calls the inherited method
• the inherited method then needs to know what type T is for the current instance

You can find the code here:

• A utility class that provides the needed method
• A unit test that demonstrates its use