Java's class loading is a mechanism for JVM to load classes dynamically at runtime. Its core works by three class loaders at hierarchy and delegate model. 1. The Bootstrap Class Loader is responsible for loading the core class library; 2. The Extension Class Loader is used to load the extension library; 3. The Application Class Loader loads the classes in the application classpath. Class loading adopts on-demand loading strategies, which helps reduce memory overhead and improve startup efficiency. It is particularly critical in large applications (such as Spring, OSGi), web servers and plug-in systems, and can realize dynamic loading and isolation of classes. If the configuration is improper, it may cause problems such as ClassNotFoundException or NoClassDefFoundError. Therefore, you should pay attention to avoid class loader leakage, dependency conflicts and reasonable use of custom class loaders.
Class loading in Java is the process by which Java classes are brought into the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) at runtime. It's not something you usually think about when writing code, but it plays a cruel behind-the-scenes role in how your Java applications run.
How Class Loading Works
When you run a Java program, not all classes are loaded at once. Instead, the JVM loads them on demand — typically when a class is referenced for the first time during execution. This helps reduce memory usage and speeds up startup time.
The actual loading is done by class loaders , which are part of the JVM. There are three main built-in class loaders:
- Bootstrap Class Loader: Loads core Java classes (like those in
java.lang
,java.util
, etc.) - Extension Class Loader: Loads classes from the extension libraries
- Application Class Loader: Loads classes from the application's classpath
Each of these works in a hierarchy, and they follow a delegation model — meaning they ask their parent to load a class before trying to do it themselves.
Why It Matters in Real Applications
Understanding class loading becomes important when dealing with larger applications or frameworks like Spring or OSGi, where dynamic loading and isolation of classes are common.
For example:
- Web servers often use custom class loaders to load different web apps separately.
- Plugins in large systems might be loaded dynamically without restarting the whole app.
- If two versions of the same class exist, class loader hierarchies can help avoid conflicts.
Getting this wrong can lead to errors like ClassNotFoundException
or NoClassDefFoundError
, which aren't always easy to debug if you're not familiar with how class loading works.
Common Issues and Tips
Here are a few things to watch out for:
- ClassLoader leaks – especially in web apps, holding references to class loaders can prevent garbage collection and cause memory issues.
- Order matters – because of the delegation model, sometimes the wrong version of a class gets loaded if multiple copies exist.
- Custom class loaders – useful in some cases, but they should be used carefully and only when necessary.
A good practice is to keep your dependencies clean and avoid overlapping libraries that might introduce class conflicts.
Basically that's it.
The above is the detailed content of What is class loading in Java?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!

Hot AI Tools

Undress AI Tool
Undress images for free

Undresser.AI Undress
AI-powered app for creating realistic nude photos

AI Clothes Remover
Online AI tool for removing clothes from photos.

Clothoff.io
AI clothes remover

Video Face Swap
Swap faces in any video effortlessly with our completely free AI face swap tool!

Hot Article

Hot Tools

Notepad++7.3.1
Easy-to-use and free code editor

SublimeText3 Chinese version
Chinese version, very easy to use

Zend Studio 13.0.1
Powerful PHP integrated development environment

Dreamweaver CS6
Visual web development tools

SublimeText3 Mac version
God-level code editing software (SublimeText3)

Hot Topics

First, use JavaScript to obtain the user system preferences and locally stored theme settings, and initialize the page theme; 1. The HTML structure contains a button to trigger topic switching; 2. CSS uses: root to define bright theme variables, .dark-mode class defines dark theme variables, and applies these variables through var(); 3. JavaScript detects prefers-color-scheme and reads localStorage to determine the initial theme; 4. Switch the dark-mode class on the html element when clicking the button, and saves the current state to localStorage; 5. All color changes are accompanied by 0.3 seconds transition animation to enhance the user

Use datetime.strptime() to convert date strings into datetime object. 1. Basic usage: parse "2023-10-05" as datetime object through "%Y-%m-%d"; 2. Supports multiple formats such as "%m/%d/%Y" to parse American dates, "%d/%m/%Y" to parse British dates, "%b%d,%Y%I:%M%p" to parse time with AM/PM; 3. Use dateutil.parser.parse() to automatically infer unknown formats; 4. Use .d

Yes, a common CSS drop-down menu can be implemented through pure HTML and CSS without JavaScript. 1. Use nested ul and li to build a menu structure; 2. Use the:hover pseudo-class to control the display and hiding of pull-down content; 3. Set position:relative for parent li, and the submenu is positioned using position:absolute; 4. The submenu defaults to display:none, which becomes display:block when hovered; 5. Multi-level pull-down can be achieved through nesting, combined with transition, and add fade-in animations, and adapted to mobile terminals with media queries. The entire solution is simple and does not require JavaScript support, which is suitable for large

The settings.json file is located in the user-level or workspace-level path and is used to customize VSCode settings. 1. User-level path: Windows is C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Code\User\settings.json, macOS is /Users//Library/ApplicationSupport/Code/User/settings.json, Linux is /home//.config/Code/User/settings.json; 2. Workspace-level path: .vscode/settings in the project root directory

Full screen layout can be achieved using Flexbox or Grid. The core is to make the minimum height of the page the viewport height (min-height:100vh); 2. Use flex:1 or grid-template-rows:auto1frauto to make the content area occupy the remaining space; 3. Set box-sizing:border-box to ensure that the margin does not exceed the container; 4. Optimize the mobile experience with responsive media query; this solution is compatible with good structure and is suitable for login pages, dashboards and other scenarios, and finally realizes a full screen page layout with vertical centering and full viewport.

Selecting the Java SpringBoot React technology stack can build stable and efficient full-stack web applications, suitable for small and medium-sized to large enterprise-level systems. 2. The backend uses SpringBoot to quickly build RESTfulAPI. The core components include SpringWeb, SpringDataJPA, SpringSecurity, Lombok and Swagger. The front-end separation is achieved through @RestController returning JSON data. 3. The front-end uses React (in conjunction with Vite or CreateReactApp) to develop a responsive interface, uses Axios to call the back-end API, and ReactRouter

To correctly handle JDBC transactions, you must first turn off the automatic commit mode, then perform multiple operations, and finally commit or rollback according to the results; 1. Call conn.setAutoCommit(false) to start the transaction; 2. Execute multiple SQL operations, such as INSERT and UPDATE; 3. Call conn.commit() if all operations are successful, and call conn.rollback() if an exception occurs to ensure data consistency; at the same time, try-with-resources should be used to manage resources, properly handle exceptions and close connections to avoid connection leakage; in addition, it is recommended to use connection pools and set save points to achieve partial rollback, and keep transactions as short as possible to improve performance.

Use performance analysis tools to locate bottlenecks, use VisualVM or JProfiler in the development and testing stage, and give priority to Async-Profiler in the production environment; 2. Reduce object creation, reuse objects, use StringBuilder to replace string splicing, and select appropriate GC strategies; 3. Optimize collection usage, select and preset initial capacity according to the scene; 4. Optimize concurrency, use concurrent collections, reduce lock granularity, and set thread pool reasonably; 5. Tune JVM parameters, set reasonable heap size and low-latency garbage collector and enable GC logs; 6. Avoid reflection at the code level, replace wrapper classes with basic types, delay initialization, and use final and static; 7. Continuous performance testing and monitoring, combined with JMH
