how do i obtain an instance of a class without spe...

# getting-started

[Smallville7123]

how do i obtain an instance of a class without specifying it explicitly

fun ret() {
    class a {
        var empty: Int = 0
    }

    val f = arrayListOf<a>()
    f.add(a()) // class a is explicitly specified
}

[serebit]

You can't. And that's all I'm going to say. You need to read the docs

[Smallville7123]

if i do v.add(v::class.java as E) then i get a type of class java.lang.Class

[Smallville7123]

why ;-; isnt the JVM meant to be able to know what type of class X is?

[ilya.gorbunov]

Read about the type erasure in JVM generics. In run time ArrayList<a> doesn't know its element type, so you cannot obtain it with reflection.

[ilya.gorbunov]

Why do you need to instantiate class a without specifying its name?

[ilya.gorbunov]

Perhaps if you need to add something to a list and you don't have anything to add, just declare the list having nullable elements and add null there.