Question

I have a list which will store Number objects. The list will be populated by parsing a list of strings, where each string may represent any subclass of Number.

How do I parse a string to a generic number, rather than something specific like an integer or float?

Answer 1

Number cannot be instantiated because it is an abstract class. I would recommend passing in Numbers, but if you are set on Strings you can parse them using any of the subclasses,

Number num = Integer.parseInt(myString);

or

Number num = NumberFormat.getInstance().parse(myNumber);

@See NumberFormat