Class getGenericSuperclass() method in Java with Examples

The getGenericSuperclass() method of java.lang.Class class is used to get the type of the superclass of this entity. This entity can be a class, an array, an interface, etc. The method returns the type of the superclass of this entity.
Syntax:

public Type getGenericSuperclass()

Parameter: This method does not accept any parameter.
Return Value: This method returns the type of the superclass of this entity.
Exceptions: This method throws following exceptions: 

• GenericSignatureFormatError: if the generic class signature does not conform to the format specified in The Java™ Virtual Machine Specification
• TypeNotPresentException: if the generic superclass refers to a non-existent type declaration
• MalformedParameterizedTypeException: if the generic superclass refers to a parameterized type that cannot be instantiated for any reason

Below programs demonstrate the getGenericSuperclass() method.
Example 1:

Java

// Java program to demonstrate
// getGenericSuperclass() method

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args)
        throws ClassNotFoundException
    {

        // returns the Class object for this class
        Class myClass = Class.forName("Test");

        System.out.println(
            "Class represented by myClass: "
            + myClass.toString());

        // Get the super class of myClass
        // using getGenericSuperclass() method
        System.out.println(
            "Type of the superclass of myClass: "
            + myClass.getGenericSuperclass());
    }
}

Output:

Class represented by myClass: class Test
Type of the superclass of myClass: class java.lang.Object

Example 2:

Java

// Java program to demonstrate
// getGenericSuperclass() method

public class Test {

    class Arr {
    }

    public static void main(String[] args)
        throws ClassNotFoundException
    {
        // returns the Class object for Arr
        Class arrClass = Arr.class;

        // Get the super class of arrClass
        // using getGenericSuperclass() method
        System.out.println(
            "Type of the superclass of arrClass: "
            + arrClass.getGenericSuperclass());
    }
}

Output:

Type of the superclass of arrClass: class java.lang.Object

Reference: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/9/docs/api/java/lang/Class.html#getGenericSuperclass–