The class keyword?

The .class keyword can be used in order to obtain a java.lang.Class<?> object of a certain class. The .class call is placed after the class name:

classvar = String.class

On instances of classes, calling getClass() will return a java.lang.Class<?> object:

aString = ""
classvar1 = String.class
classvar2 = aString.getClass()

assert classvar1 == classvar2//these both point to the same Class object

This also works for primitive types and arrays:

iclass = int.class
aclass = int[].class

There are a number of useful methods, mostly concerning reflection, which exist on instance objects of java.lang.Class. For more information see the JDK documentation.