class literal

[Sachin]

Does this explain in the java documentation?
Is this a key word?
What is the purpose of this?

Thanks.

 

[Thomas Weidenfeller]

Does this explain in the java documentation?
Is this a key word?
What is the purpose of this?

Check the language specification

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/expressions.html#251530

 

[Ian Shef]

Does this explain in the java documentation?
Is this a key word?
What is the purpose of this?

Thanks.

A search at http://java.sun.com quickly turned up:

http://java.sun.com/developer/TechTips/1997/tt1118.html#tip3

which explains the use of .class and provides an example.

See paragraphs 15.8 and 15.8.2 in the Java Language Specification (3rd
edition) available at
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/index.html

Suppose that you have an object of class Abc.
Then Abc.class is an object of class java.lang.Class that represents that
class Abc.
This object (Abc.class) can be passed as a parameter to a method.
It can also be queried for information about the class Abc.
See the javadocs for java.lang.Class.