Load Java-Byte-Code at Runtime

Question

I got some java-byte-code (so compiled java-source) which is generated in my program. Now I want to load this byte-code into the currently running Java-VM and run a specific function. I'm not sure how to accomplish this, I digged a little bit into the Java Classloaders but found no straight way.

I found a solution which takes a class-file on the harddisk, but the bytecode I got is in a Byte-Array and I dont want to write it down to the disk but use it directly instead.

Thanks!

Answer 1

you need to write a custom class loader that overloads the findClass method

public Class findClass(String name) {
    byte[] b = ... // get the bytes from wherever they are generated
    return defineClass(name, b, 0, b.length);
}

Answer 2

If the byte code is not on the classpath of the running program, you can use URLClassLoader. From http://www.exampledepot.com/egs/java.lang/LoadClass.html

// Create a File object on the root of the directory containing the class file
File file = new File("c:\\myclasses\\");

try {
    // Convert File to a URL
    URL url = file.toURL();          // file:/c:/myclasses/
    URL[] urls = new URL[]{url};

    // Create a new class loader with the directory
    ClassLoader cl = new URLClassLoader(urls);

    // Load in the class; MyClass.class should be located in
    // the directory file:/c:/myclasses/com/mycompany
    Class cls = cl.loadClass("com.mycompany.MyClass");
} catch (MalformedURLException e) {
} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
}