Java: how do I get a class literal from a generic type?

Question

Typically, I\'ve seen people use the class literal like this:

Class cls = Foo.class;

But what if the type is generic, e.g. List?

Answer 1

Due to the exposed fact that Class literals doesn't have generic type information, I think you should assume that it will be impossible to get rid of all the warnings. In a way, using Class is the same as using a collection without specifying the generic type. The best I could come out with was:

private > List getList(Class cls) {
    List res = new ArrayList();
    // "snip"... some stuff happening in here, using cls
    return res;
}

public > List> getList() {
    return getList(A.class);
}