get class of object and instantiate new instance

java, reflection, subclass

Solution

You could do something along these lines.

Class<? extends SuperClass> clazz = var.getClass();
SuperClass varCopy = clazz.newInstance();

Note that the `clazz.newInstance()` will throw an IllegalAccessException if it does not have a default empty constructor.

Problem

I'm hoping to do something like: ``` SubClass c = var.getClass(); SuperClass varCopy = new SubClass(); ``` In other words, I know what the superclass of varCopy will be at compile time, but I'm not sure which subclass will be instantiated. Is there a way to do this in Java? Thanks!

Original source