What does Class.forName() method do?

• Method forName() is a static method of java.lang.Class.
• This can be used to dynamically load a class at run-time.
• Class.forName() loads the class if its not already loaded.
• It also executes the static block of loaded class.
• Then this method returns an instance of the loaded class.
• So a call to Class.forName('MyClass') is going to do following

                       -Load the class MyClass.

                       -Execute any static block code of MyClass.

                       -Return an instance of MyClass.

• JDBC Driver loading using Class.forName is a good example of best use of this method.

The driver loading is done like this

Class.forName("org.mysql.Driver"); 

• All JDBC Drivers have a static block that registers itself with DriverManager and DriverManager has static initializer method registerDriver() which can be called in a static blocks of Driver class. 
• A MySQL JDBC Driver has a static initializer which looks like this:

static { 

    try { 

        java.sql.DriverManager.registerDriver(new Driver()); 

    } catch (SQLException E) { 

        throw new RuntimeException("Can't register driver!"); 

    } 

} 

• Class.forName() loads driver class and executes the static block and the Driver registers itself with the DriverManager.