Getting the Type from generic type parameter, Within a class

Guava makes it easier to get the type of a generic type parameter. I personally feel it's ugly to request the Class given through the generic interface <T>, even though the class should already be aware of it. Even though browsing seems to turn up that asking for Class<T> in your constructor seems like the most standard way.

protected Class<T> clazz;

protected final MongoTemplate mongoTemplate;
protected ExtendedMongoTemplate(MongoTemplate mongoTemplate) {

   this.mongoTemplate = mongoTemplate;
   final TypeToken<? extends T> typeToken = new TypeToken<>(this.getClass()){};
   final Type type = typeToken.getType();
   if(type instanceof Class) {

      clazz = (Class<T>) type;
   } else {
      throw new RuntimeException(this.getClass() + ": failed to retrieve generic parameter 

                class in " + ExtendedMongoTemplate.class.getSimpleName() + ".");   }

}

/** * if the present way of extracting the class from the generic parameter fails * this method can be used in the child's constructor. * @param clazz */protected void setClazz(Class<T> clazz) {

   this.clazz = clazz;}