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Package Name as a Constant (See related posts)

getClass().getPackage().getName() is not a reliable solution, because getPackage() can be null depending on a class loader.
static final String PACKAGE_NAME = MyClass.class.getName().substring(0, 
            MyClass.class.getName().lastIndexOf('.'));
to java by ejboy on Wed Apr 04 15:21:14 -0400 2007

Comments on this post

pediddle posts on Apr 04, 2007 at 16:46
Just a note, it's a constant but not a **compile time** constant, which means you lose a lot of optimizations about it. I am a fan of the ".class" syntax to be guaranteed to get a value. Also note that if you're dealing with classloaders, there might actually be more than one instance of the MyClass class floating around.

Sometimes I hate Java.
ejboy posts on Apr 05, 2007 at 14:59
1) It's initialized only once during class initialization, so I don't see a big problem being a "runtime constant"
2) I don't see any problems with different class floating around, because this snippet stores the package name which is obviously the same.

Anyway, it would be great if somebody provide a better solution
DRMacIver posts on Apr 05, 2007 at 18:41
Why exactly do you want the package name as a constant?

The most common need for dealing with class and package names as literal strings is for loading resources from the classpath. I avoid this by making sure there's a marker class I can use in the package I'm loading the resource from and loading relative to that class.

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