fully qualified name of nested class

[Richard Hayward]

In this code, I have a static nested class Dog.

class ClassLiteralTest {
  static class Dog{
    void bark(){System.out.println("woof!");}
  }
  public static void main(String[] args){
    Class cl;
    try {
      //cl = Class.forName("Dog");                      //ClassNotFoundException
      //cl = Class.forName("ClassLiteralTest.Dog");     //ClassNotFoundException
      cl = Class.forName("ClassLiteralTest$Dog");       //works!
      Dog dog = (Dog) cl.newInstance();
      dog.bark();                                       //woof!
    } catch (Exception e) {
      System.out.println(e);
    }
    new Dog().bark();                                   //woof!              
    new ClassLiteralTest.Dog().bark();                  //woof!
    System.out.println(Dog.class.getCanonicalName());   //ClassLiteralTest.Dog
  }
}

output:
woof! woof! woof! ClassLiteralTest.Dog
Within main of the outer class, I'm using Class.forName() to get a class literal and then using that class literal to create a Dog.
At line 12, the dog proves it really is a Dog, by barking.
What seems odd is that, the String I supply as argument to Class.forName() must be "ClassLiteralTest$Dog".
I know that on compilation a .class file with $ separated name is generated, but elsewhere in code, if I want to refer to or create a Dog, as at line 17, I'd use dot syntax. Similarly, Dog.class.getCanonicalName() returns a dot separated name.

So, is the way to understand this, that the fully qualified name of a class, as required by Class.forName(), is the name in the host os file system less '.class', which isn't always the same as the canonical name?

[Roel De Nijs]

Richard Hayward wrote:What seems odd is that, the String I supply as argument to Class.forName() must be "ClassLiteralTest$Dog".

That's not odd, that's just how it works More info can be found in this topic.

[Richard Hayward]

Roel De Nijs wrote:More info can be found in this topic.

Thanks Roel, I'll study that thread.