Java Class getName() Method

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Description

The Java Class getName() method returns the name of the entity (class, interface, array class, primitive type, or void) represented by this Class object, as a String.

Declaration

Following is the declaration for java.lang.Class.getName() method

public String getName()

Parameters

NA

Return Value

This method returns the name of the class or interface represented by this object.

Exception

NA

Getting Name of a Class Example

The following example shows the usage of java.lang.Class.getName() method. In this program, we've created an instance of ClassDemo and then using getClass() method, the class of the instance is retrieved. Using getName(), we've retrieved the name of the class and then printed its name.

package com.tutorialspoint;

public class ClassDemo {

   public static void main(String[] args) {

      // returns the Class object associated with this class
      ClassDemo cl = new ClassDemo();
      Class c1Class = cl.getClass();

      // returns the name of the class
      String name = c1Class.getName();
      System.out.println("Class Name = " + name);
   }
}

Output

Let us compile and run the above program, this will produce the following result −

Class Name = com.tutorialspoint.ClassDemo

Getting Name of ArrayList Example

The following example shows the usage of java.lang.Class.getName() method. In this program, we've used class of ArrayList. Using getName(), we've retrieved the name and then printed it.

package com.tutorialspoint;

import java.lang.reflect.Modifier;
import java.util.ArrayList;

public class ClassDemo {

   public static void main(String[] args) {

      Class cls = ArrayList.class;

      // returns the name of the class
      String name = cls.getName();
      System.out.println("Class Name = " + name);
   }
} 

Output

Let us compile and run the above program, this will produce the following result −

Class Name = java.util.ArrayList

Getting Name of Thread Example

The following example shows the usage of java.lang.Class.getName() method. In this program, we've used class of Thread. Using getName(), we've retrieved the name and then printed it.

package com.tutorialspoint;

public class ClassDemo {

   public static void main(String[] args) {

      Class cls = Thread.class;

      // returns the name of the class
      String name = cls.getName();
      System.out.println("Class Name = " + name);
   }
} 

Output

Let us compile and run the above program, this will produce the following result −

Class Name = java.lang.Thread