If you simply wanted to have a collection of static constants identified by
name, I'd just make a static Map and populate it.  However, if you really
want values that are distributed in different classes, the most direct
approach is to use reflection.  First break the string into the class name
and the field name.  The rest will look something like...

Class clazz = Class.forName (className);
Field field = clazz.getDeclaredField (fieldName);
String value = (String)field.get(null);

You can read the Javadocs for details.

Matt Humphrey http://www.iviz.com/

see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/classforname.html
that lets you get the class given its name.
To call a method or get the value of a field you must use reflection.
see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/refection.html

Another technique is to compose some Java source code, compile it on
the fly and execute it.
see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/onthefly.html

the practical way you handle this is with a HashMap of delegates.  You
look up string to get delegate objects that implement some interface.

see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/delegate.html