The Java Language Specification, Third Edition

15.9.1 Determining the Class being Instantiated EXPRESSIONS
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generic constructor (§8.8.4)). The type arguments to the constructor immediately
follow the keyword new. It is a compile-time error if any of the type arguments
used in a class instance creation expression are wildcard type arguments (§4.5.1).
Class instance creation expressions have two forms:
• Unqualified class instance creation expressions begin with the keyword new.
An unqualified class instance creation expression may be used to create an
instance of a class, regardless of whether the class is a top-level (§7.6), member
(§8.5, §9.5), local (§14.3) or anonymous class (§15.9.5).
• Qualified class instance creation expressions begin with a Primary. A qualified
class instance creation expression enables the creation of instances of
inner member classes and their anonymous subclasses.
A class instance creation expression can throw an exception type E iff either:
• The expression is a qualified class instance creation expression and the qualifying
expression can throw E; or
• Some expression of the argument list can throw E; or
• E is listed in the throws clause of the type of the constructor that is invoked; or
• The class instance creation expression includes a ClassBody, and some instnance
initializer block or instance variable initializer expression in the Class-
Body can throw E.
Both unqualified and qualified class instance creation expressions may
optionally end with a class body. Such a class instance creation expression
declares an anonymous class (§15.9.5) and creates an instance of it.
We say that a class is instantiated when an instance of the class is created by a
class instance creation expression. Class instantiation involves determining what
class is to be instantiated, what the enclosing instances (if any) of the newly created
instance are, what constructor should be invoked to create the new instance
and what arguments should be passed to that constructor.
DRAFT
15.9.1 Determining the Class being Instantiated
If the class instance creation expression ends in a class body, then the class being
instantiated is an anonymous class. Then:
• If the class instance creation expression is an unqualified class instance creation
expression, then let T be the ClassOrInterfaceType after the new token. It
is a compile-time error if the class or interface named by T is not accessible
(§6.6) or if T is an enum type (§8.9). If T denotes a class, then an anonymous