3 ms·

In this case isn't someClassObject just a literal that's resolved at compile-time and erased into a simple identifier symbol? You can't pass someClassObject as

• lucifer 17y ago
  > In this case isn't someClassObject just a literal that's resolved at compile-time and erased into a simple identifier symbol? No. Its a variable assigned in runtime. public void yesYouCan (Object foo, Class<?> someClassObject) { // compile time? if(foo.getClass() instanceof someClassObject) { ... } } Regardless, class and symbolic resolution occur at both compilation (to create the binary clsss files) and in runtime in the JVM (to load and execute the binary generated by the compiler): http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/second_edition/html/execution.doc.html#44487 http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/second_edition/html/execu... > You can't pass someClassObject as an argument to anything but an operator like new or instanceof, and you can't assign to or from it, it doesn't itself belong to a class. It isn't an object. No, its quite possible/common to write methods that take class objects as parameters.