Question

Is there a way to create a new class from a String variable in Java?

String className = "Class1";
//pseudocode follows
Object xyz = new className(param1, param2);

Also, if possible does the resulting object have to be of type Object?

There may be a better way, but I want to be able to retrieve values from an XML file, then instantiate the classes named after those strings. Each of these classes implement the same interface and are derived from the same parent class, so I would then be able to call a particular method in that class.

Answer 1

This is what you want to do:

String className = "Class1";
Object xyz = Class.forName(className).newInstance();

Note that the newInstance method does not allow a parametrized constructor to be used. (See Class.newInstance documentation)

If you do need to use a parametrized constructor, this is what you need to do:

import java.lang.reflect.*;

Param1Type param1;
Param2Type param2;
String className = "Class1";
Class cl = Class.forName(className);
Constructor con = cl.getConstructor(Param1Type.class, Param2Type.class);
Object xyz = con.newInstance(param1, param2);

See Constructor.newInstance documentation