Manipulating Objects

Using Constructors that Have Arguments

To create an object with a constructor that has arguments, you invoke the newInstance method upon a Constructor object, not a Class object. This technique involves several steps:

1. Create a Class object for the object you want to create.
2. Create a Constructor object by invoking getConstructor upon the Class object. The getConstructor method has one parameter: an array of Class objects that correspond to the constructor's parameters.
3. Create the object by invoking newInstance upon the Constructor object. The newInstance method has one parameter: an Object array whose elements are the argument values being passed to the constructor.

The sample program that follows creates a Rectangle with the constructor that accepts two integers as parameters. Invoking newInstance upon this constructor is analagous to this statement:

Rectangle rectangle = new Rectangle(12, 34);

This constructor's arguments are primitive types, but the argument values passed to newInstance must be objects. Therefore, each of the primitive int types is wrapped in an Integer object.

The sample program hardcodes the argument passed to the getConstructor method. In a real-life application like a debugger, you would probably let the user select the constructor. To verify the user's selection, you could use the methods described in Discovering Class Constructors.

The source code for the sample program is:

import java.lang.reflect.*;
import java.awt.*;

class SampleInstance {

   public static void main(String[] args) {

      Rectangle rectangle;
      Class rectangleDefinition;
      Class[] intArgsClass = new Class[] {int.class, int.class};
      Integer height = new Integer(12);
      Integer width = new Integer(34);
      Object[] intArgs = new Object[] {height, width};
      Constructor intArgsConstructor;

      try {
        rectangleDefinition = Class.forName("java.awt.Rectangle");
        intArgsConstructor = 
            rectangleDefinition.getConstructor(intArgsClass);
        rectangle = 
            (Rectangle) createObject(intArgsConstructor, intArgs);
      } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
          System.out.println(e);
      } catch (NoSuchMethodException e) {
          System.out.println(e);
      }
   }

   public static Object createObject(Constructor constructor, 
                                     Object[] arguments) {

      System.out.println ("Constructor: " + constructor.toString());
      Object object = null;

      try {
        object = constructor.newInstance(arguments);
        System.out.println ("Object: " + object.toString());
        return object;
      } catch (InstantiationException e) {
          System.out.println(e);
      } catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
          System.out.println(e);
      } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
          System.out.println(e);
      } catch (InvocationTargetException e) {
          System.out.println(e);
      }
      return object;
   }
}

The sample program prints a description of the constructor and the object that it creates:

Constructor: public java.awt.Rectangle(int,int)
Object: java.awt.Rectangle[x=0,y=0,width=12,height=34]

Manipulating Objects