ClassLoader Class - Class Loaders

This document provides tutorial notes and example codes on java.lang.ClassLoader class. Topics include JRE class loaders: Bootstrap, Extensions and System Class Loaders; using getSystemClassLoader().loadClass() to load classes explicitly; using ' verbose:class' option to see when and where classes are loaded.

What Is Class Loader?

What Is java.lang.ClassLoader Class?

Accessing the ClassLoader of a Class

JVM "-verbose:class" Option

loadClass() Method - Loading Classes Explicitly

getSystemResource() Method - Finding Files

Class Loading Problem - JAR Hell

Conclusions:

• Class loaders are part of JRE that loads Java classes into JVM.
• There are 3 built-in class loaders: Bootstrap, Extensions, and System class loaders.
• Bootstrap class loader loads system classes in JAR files from <JAVA_HOME>/lib folder.
• Extensions class loader loads extensions classes in JAR files from <JAVA_HOME>/lib/ext folder.
• System class loader loads application classes from "classpath" entries.
• java.lang.ClassLoader is abstract class that represents class loaders in JVM.
• Most of the time, classes are loaded into JVM implicitly on an on-demand basis.
• Calling loadClass() method on a class loader loads the given class into JVM explicitly.
• Calling getClassLoader() method on a loaded class returns its class loader.
• ClassLoader.getSystemResource() method can be used to find the first location of a given class file, or any other file, using the same file search logic used by class loaders.