Actually, it is possible (without external libraries!)

The following is my (ugly, yet effective) solution for this problem:

import java.lang.reflect.TypeVariable;


public static <T> Class<T> getGenericClass() {
    __<T> instance = new __<T>();
    TypeVariable<?>[] parameters = instance.getClass().getTypeParameters(); 

    return (Class<T>)parameters[0].getClass();
}

// Generic helper class which (only) provides type information. This avoids the
//   usage of a local variable of type T, which would have to be initialized.
private final class __<T> {
    private __() { }
}

I assume that, since you have a generic class, you would have a variable like that:

private T t;

(this variable needs to take a value at the constructor)

In that case you can simply create the following method:

Class<T> getClassOfInstance()
{
    return (Class<T>) t.getClass();
}

Hope it helps!

As explained in other answers, to use this ParameterizedType approach, you need to extend the class, but that seems like extra work to make a whole new class that extends it...

So, making the class abstract it forces you to extend it, thus satisfying the subclassing requirement. (using lombok's @Getter).

@Getter
public abstract class ConfigurationDefinition<T> {

    private Class<T> type;
    ...

    public ConfigurationDefinition(...) {
        this.type = (Class<T>) ((ParameterizedType) this.getClass().getGenericSuperclass()).getActualTypeArguments()[0];
        ...
    }
}

Now to extend it without defining a new class. (Note the {} on the end... extended, but don't overwrite anything - unless you want to).

private ConfigurationDefinition<String> myConfigA = new ConfigurationDefinition<String>(...){};
private ConfigurationDefinition<File> myConfigB = new ConfigurationDefinition<File>(...){};
...
Class stringType = myConfigA.getType();
Class fileType = myConfigB.getType();

That is pretty straight forward. If you need from within the same class:

Class clazz = this.getClass();
ParameterizedType parameterizedType = (ParameterizedType) clazz.getGenericSuperclass();
try {
        Class typeClass = Class.forName( parameterizedType.getActualTypeArguments()[0].getTypeName() );
        // You have the instance of type 'T' in typeClass variable

        System.out.println( "Class instance name: "+  typeClass.getName() );
    } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
        System.out.println( "ClassNotFound!! Something wrong! "+ e.getMessage() );
    }

Many people don't know this trick! Actually, I just found it today! It works like a dream! Just check this example out:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    Date d=new Date();  //Or anything you want!
    printMethods(d);
}

public static <T> void printMethods(T t){
    Class<T> clazz= (Class<T>) t.getClass(); // There you go!
    for ( Method m : clazz.getMethods()){
        System.out.println( m.getName() );
    }
}

I've created an example based on one of two most promising solutions here from this question.

The result is however not so promising, at least for my use case.

Only one approach is working, but you need a super class containing the method and the generic has to be set in the child class and cannot be assigned dynamically (which my use case sadly is)

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

import java.lang.reflect.ParameterizedType;
import java.lang.reflect.Type;

import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;
import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertThrows;


public class GenericTest {

    /**
     * only this will work!
     */
    @Test
    void testGetGenericTypeClassFromChildClassWithSpecifiedType() {
        TestClassWithSpecifiedType parent = new TestClassWithSpecifiedType();
        assertEquals(SomeGenericType.class, parent.getGenericTypeClass());
    }

    /**
     * won't work!
     */
    @Test
    void testGetGenericTypeClassFromChildClassWithUnspecifiedType() {
        TestClassWithUnspecifiedType<SomeGenericType> parent = new TestClassWithUnspecifiedType<>();
        assertThrows(IllegalStateException.class, parent::getGenericTypeClass);
    }

    /**
     * won't work
     */
    @Test
    void testGetGenericTypeClassWithUnspecifiedType() {
        SomeGenericTypedClass<SomeGenericType> parent = new SomeGenericTypedClass<>();
        assertThrows(IllegalStateException.class, parent::getGenericTypeClass);
    }

    /**
     * won't work
     * returns object instead!
     */
    @Test
    void testGetLoadedClassFromObject() {
        Foo<SomeGenericType> foo = new Foo<>();
        Class<?> barClass = foo.getBarClass();
        assertEquals(SomeGenericType.class, barClass);
    }

    /**
     * A class that has specified the type parameter
     */
    public static class TestClassWithSpecifiedType extends AbstractGenericTypedClass<SomeGenericType> {

    }

    /**
     * A class where the type parameter will be specified on demand
     *
     * @param <T>
     */
    public static class TestClassWithUnspecifiedType<T> extends AbstractGenericTypedClass<T> {

    }

    /**
     * An abstract class, because otherwise finding the parameter will not work
     */
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    public static abstract class AbstractGenericTypedClass<T> {
        @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
        public Class<T> getGenericTypeClass() {
            try {
                String className = ((ParameterizedType) getClass().getGenericSuperclass()).getActualTypeArguments()[0].getTypeName();
                Class<?> clazz = Class.forName(className);
                return (Class<T>) clazz;
            } catch (Exception e) {
                throw new IllegalStateException("Class is not parametrized with generic type!!! Please use extends <> ");
            }
        }
    }

    /**
     * A typed class without abstract super class
     *
     * @param <T>
     */
    public static class SomeGenericTypedClass<T> {
        @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
        public Class<T> getGenericTypeClass() {
            try {
                String className = ((ParameterizedType) getClass().getGenericSuperclass()).getActualTypeArguments()[0].getTypeName();
                Class<?> clazz = Class.forName(className);
                return (Class<T>) clazz;
            } catch (Exception e) {
                throw new IllegalStateException("Class is not parametrized with generic type!!! Please use extends <> ");
            }
        }
    }


    /**
     * Some generic type - won't work with primitives such as String, Integer, Double!
     */
    public static class SomeGenericType {

    }

    public static class Foo<T> {
        // The class:
        private final Class<?> barClass;

        public Foo() {
            try {
                // Im giving it [0] cuz Bar is the first TypeParam
                Type[] bounds = getClass().getTypeParameters()[0].getBounds();
                // Here, we get the class now:
                barClass = Class.forName(bounds[0].getTypeName());
            } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
                // will never happen!
                throw new Error("Something impossible happened!", e);
            }
        }

        public Class<?> getBarClass() {
            return barClass;
        }
    }
}

I do not really understand why this has to be so complicated, but I bet there have to be some technical limitations for the dynamically setting of parameters.

This question is old, but now the best is use google Gson.

An example to get custom viewModel.

Class<CustomViewModel<String>> clazz = new GenericClass<CustomViewModel<String>>().getRawType();
CustomViewModel<String> viewModel = viewModelProvider.get(clazz);

Generic type class

class GenericClass<T>(private val rawType: Class<*>) {

    constructor():this(`$Gson$Types`.getRawType(object : TypeToken<T>() {}.getType()))

    fun getRawType(): Class<T> {
        return rawType as Class<T>
    }
}

I wanted to pass T.class to a method which make use of Generics

The method readFile reads a .csv file specified by the fileName with fullpath. There can be csv files with different contents hence i need to pass the model file class so that i can get the appropriate objects. Since this is reading csv file i wanted to do in a generic way. For some reason or other none of the above solutions worked for me. I need to use Class<? extends T> type to make it work. I use opencsv library for parsing the CSV files.

private <T>List<T> readFile(String fileName, Class<? extends T> type) {

    List<T> dataList = new ArrayList<T>();
    try {
        File file = new File(fileName);

        Reader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(file)));
        Reader headerReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(file)));

        CSVReader csvReader = new CSVReader(headerReader);
        // create csv bean reader
        CsvToBean<T> csvToBean = new CsvToBeanBuilder(reader)
                .withType(type)
                .withIgnoreLeadingWhiteSpace(true)
                .build();

        dataList = csvToBean.parse();
    }
    catch (Exception ex) {
        logger.error("Error: ", ex);
    }

    return dataList;
}

This is how the readFile method is called

List<RigSurfaceCSV> rigSurfaceCSVDataList = readSurfaceFile(surfaceFileName, RigSurfaceCSV.class);