Dynamic creation of panels from variables

Question

Hi folks,
I would kindly ask someone to help me with following issue:
I want to add a panel to the existing frame based on the value stored in a variable, like shown in example:
//panel creation
// of course the classes are defined somewhere else
PANEL1 p1 = new PANEL1();
PANEL2 p2 = new PANEL2();
String pname = new String("p1");
// depending on the value stored in pname I want to add p1 or p2
// to my frame
Of course I could do something like this:
if (pname.startsWith("p1")) {
myframe.add(p1); // and all .setVisible stuff ...
} else {
myframe.add(p2);
but I am looking for a smarter way to do it, since I have approx. 50 different panels...
Thanks,
KZic
For people familiar with Perl there is something like $$variable. Is there something like this in Java too?

Answer 1

Kresimir_Zic,
If the PANEL* classes will be in your classpath you can do something like this:
Class.forName("foo").newInstance();
This uses the no-arg constructor. To use other constructors, say one that takes a String arg, do something like:
Class cls = Class.forName("SomeClass");
Class[] params = {String.class};
java.lang.reflect.Constructor con = cls.getConstructor(params);
Object obj = con.newInstance("foo");
You may then continue to use reflection to work with the instantiated object or, if you can have all your panels implement an interface, take that easier route.
--A