Extending or adding new classes at runtime in Java

Question

Is there a way to add (or extend existing) classes at runtime in java. I\'m stuck on a problem, in which I have to extend an existing class at runtime and add this to the cl

Answer 1

There are a number of ways you could do this.

• Compile source code at runtime using the javax.tools package and then load them using a ClassLoader.
• If you are writing to interfaces, you can decorate classes with a Proxy.
• Take the more complicated route of bytecode manipulation/generation using a technology like BCEL or ASM (the latter has more up-to-date support for language features, like annotations) and then load the class with a ClassLoader.

I imagine there are other options.