Here you can find the source of loadClass(String className)
public static Class<?> loadClass(String className) throws ClassNotFoundException
//package com.java2s; /*/*from ww w. j a va 2s .co m*/ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one * or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file * distributed with this work for additional information * regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance * with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at * * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 * * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, * software distributed under the License is distributed on an * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY * KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the * specific language governing permissions and limitations * under the License. */ import java.util.Map; import java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantReadWriteLock; public class Main { private static ReentrantReadWriteLock LOCK = new ReentrantReadWriteLock(); private static Map<Long, Map<String, ClassLoader>> CLASSLOADER_MAP = null; /** * Loads a class. If the context class loader is set, it is used. */ public static Class<?> loadClass(String className) throws ClassNotFoundException { ClassLoader ccl = Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader(); if (ccl == null) { try { return loadClass(className, null); } catch (ClassNotFoundException cnf) { return loadClassWithRegisteredClassLoaders(className); } } try { return loadClass(className, ccl); } catch (ClassNotFoundException cnf) { try { return loadClass(className, null); } catch (ClassNotFoundException cnf2) { return loadClassWithRegisteredClassLoaders(className); } } } /** * Loads a class from the given class loader. */ public static Class<?> loadClass(String className, ClassLoader classLoader) throws ClassNotFoundException { if (classLoader == null) { return Class.forName(className); } else { return Class.forName(className, true, classLoader); } } /** * Loads a class with the reigistered class loaders. */ private static Class<?> loadClassWithRegisteredClassLoaders(String className) throws ClassNotFoundException { if (className == null) { throw new ClassNotFoundException("Class name is null!"); } LOCK.readLock().lock(); try { if (CLASSLOADER_MAP == null) { throw new ClassNotFoundException(); } for (Map<String, ClassLoader> clm : CLASSLOADER_MAP.values()) { for (Map.Entry<String, ClassLoader> cle : clm.entrySet()) { if (cle.getKey().equals(className)) { return loadClass(className, cle.getValue()); } } } throw new ClassNotFoundException(); } finally { LOCK.readLock().unlock(); } } }