I apologise if my explanation of the problem was inadequate, I'll try to
be a little more verbose.

My flatfile parser accepts a simple grammar (XML file) and an flat file
(inputstream) to parse. The result of this is a 2-dimensional array of
records (1'st dimension) with fields (2'nd dimension).

However, when time comes to actually use these records in other parts of
my applications, the fields within the records have to be accessed
through indices.

    Records[record][field];

This is hard to build on and error-prone, especially as I am aiming for
a generic loosely-coupled design to parse any kind of flat file.

What I would love is to be able to use methods of the record to access
specific fields. This means I would somehow need to encapsulate a simple
record array, which currently looks like this:
   
    Record{"Martin", "Short", "37"}

...and wrap, such that I can now access the records by appropiate calls:

    getFirstname() // Returns Record[0] ("Martin")

Rather than letting fields be placed into a record array, I would be
happy with a solution where the desired "record object" is passed to the
parser, such that it can use this very object (which has the desired
accessors) to represent a record in the array.

    parse(InputStream grammar,InputStream flat, RecordType NameAgeRecord );

This allows other parts of program to use the accessors like this:

    ( (NameAgeRecord) Record[31]).getFirstName();

I think this is the best solution for mapping a flat file, using a
descriptive grammar, to a Java runtime object. The problem I have with
this solution is that while I can pass an interface, class or object,
neither allows me to use "new" when creating the records and placing it
into the array. My current idea is that perhaps a factory can help here.

I hope this explains a little better what I am trying to do, and how I
am desperately searching for some way to customize accessors rather than
indexing [row][field] as I am currently doing.

Thank you so much for reading!

/Casper