How do I get a class instance of generic type T?

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The short answer is, that there is no way to find out the runtime type of generic type parameters in Java. I suggest reading the chapter about type erasure in the Java Tutorial for more details.

A popular solution to this is to pass the Class of the type parameter into the constructor of the generic type, e.g.

class Foo<T> {
    final Class<T> typeParameterClass;

    public Foo(Class<T> typeParameterClass) {
        this.typeParameterClass = typeParameterClass;
    }

    public void bar() {
        // you can access the typeParameterClass here and do whatever you like
    }
}

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