How to Resolve the Instantiation Exception in Java

The InstantiationException is a runtime exception in Java that occurs when an application attempts to create an instance of a class using the Class.newInstance() method, but the specified class object cannot be instantiated.

Since the InstantiationException is an unchecked exception, it does not need to be declared in the throws clause of a method or constructor.

What Causes InstantiationException

The InstantiationException is thrown when the JVM cannot instantiate a type at runtime. This can happen for a variety of reasons, including the following:

• The class object represents an abstract class, interface, array class, primitive or void.
• The class has no nullary constructor. Such a constructor is required when a parameterized constructor is defined for the class.

InstantiationException Example

Here is an example of an InstantiationException thrown when the Class.newInstance() method is used to create an instance of a boolean:

public class InstantiationExceptionExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            Class<Boolean> clazz = boolean.class; 
            clazz.newInstance();
        } catch (InstantiationException ie) {
            ie.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IllegalAccessException iae) {
            iae.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Since boolean is a primitive data type, a new instance of it cannot be created using the Class.newInstance() method, which can only construct objects for concrete classes. Running the above code throws the following exception:

java.lang.InstantiationException: boolean
    at java.base/java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:598)
    at InstantiationExceptionExample.main(InstantiationExceptionExample.java:5)
Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchMethodException: boolean.<init>()
    at java.base/java.lang.Class.getConstructor0(Class.java:3427)
    at java.base/java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:585)
    ... 1 more

How to Resolve InstantiationException

To avoid the InstantiationException, it should be ensured that the instance of the class that is attempted to be created at runtime using Class.newInstance() is a concrete class and not an abstract class, interface, array class, primitive or void.

If it is a concrete class, it should be ensured that the class has a nullary constructor (in case it contains a parameterized constructor). If this is not possible, the Constructor objects can be reflectively looked up and used to construct a new instance of the class using Constructor.newInstance(args) with arguments that pass the actual constructor argument values.

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