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Is there a way to reference a package in java in code without using a String?

Let me explain myself:

I've a function that fetches all object contained in a package, but I've to reference that package using a String, lets say "com.google.guava". This works, however, If I change the package name, the IDE is not able to automatically refractor the references, or if the package is external and dissapears after a major version change it is not detected at compile time.

With classes, I'd use a Class object directly when possible or Class#getName if what I need is a String representing the FQDN of the class, but I don't know if there's a way to do so with packages.

Sometimes I just do

Class<?> clazz = Foo.class;
Package p = clazz.getPackage();

This is more a curiosity than a real issue, I usually just reference by String and write a junit test in order to detect nom-existant packages used this way

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    Foo.class.getPackage() is already the best you can get. But “all object contained in a package” makes no sense. A package contains classes, not objects. Commented Jun 2, 2020 at 14:26
  • @Holger Well, I get config files and other stuff, I know they're not conceptually in the package (concerning to Java), but they're in the same directory and the package is the way I use to find the folder. English is not my mother languaje and I wanted to keep the post as simple as possible. My function returns all java property files, xml configs and classes (it is for a code generator, the function gets the existing generated files in order to update them. I know they should be in a specific resources folder, but I'm inheriting a bad project structure :(). This question was mostly curiosity Commented Jun 4, 2020 at 19:11
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    I don’t think that resources have to be in a specific resources folder. But if you mean “resources” you should not have said “object”. When you want to access resources, there is no point in getting the Package object, as the class Package does not offer anything for resource lookup. The Package class only exists to allow accessing meta information. Resources have to be accessed via Foo.class.getResource(…) anyway. The standard way to iterate over all resources, is to open a filesystem. Commented Jun 5, 2020 at 8:11

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I can think of the following ways to get a Package object:

  1. Call classLoader.getPackage(java.lang.String) or Package.getPackage(java.lang.String). These methods are deprecated.

  2. Call Package classLoader.getDefinedPackage(java.lang.String)

  3. Call Package class.getPackage()

  4. Call Package[] Package.getPackages() and then scan through the resulting array for the one that you want.

The last two approaches qualify as finding a Package with using a String.

There is no equivalent to a Java "class literal" (i.e. SomeClass.class) for packages.

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All solutions have the same "problem", however, the "There is no equivalent to a Java "class literal" (i.e. SomeClass.class) for packages." part answers my question. Thank you.

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