java.lang.reflect

Class Method

Implemented Interfaces:
Member

public final class Method
extends AccessibleObject
implements Member

The Method class represents a member method of a class. It also allows dynamic invocation, via reflection. This works for both static and instance methods. Invocation on Method objects knows how to do widening conversions, but throws IllegalArgumentException if a narrowing conversion would be necessary. You can query for information on this Method regardless of location, but invocation access may be limited by Java language access controls. If you can't do it in the compiler, you can't normally do it here either.

Note: This class returns and accepts types as Classes, even primitive types; there are Class types defined that represent each different primitive type. They are java.lang.Boolean.TYPE, java.lang.Byte.TYPE,, also available as boolean.class, byte.class, etc. These are not to be confused with the classes java.lang.Boolean, java.lang.Byte, etc., which are real classes.

Also note that this is not a serializable class. It is entirely feasible to make it serializable using the Externalizable interface, but this is on Sun, not me.

Since:
1.1
See Also:
Member, Class, java.lang.Class.getMethod(String,Object[]), java.lang.Class.getDeclaredMethod(String,Object[]), Class.getMethods(), Class.getDeclaredMethods()

Fields inherited from interface java.lang.reflect.Member

DECLARED, PUBLIC

Method Summary

boolean
equals(Object o)
Compare two objects to see if they are semantically equivalent.
Class
getDeclaringClass()
Gets the class that declared this method, or the class where this method is a non-inherited member.
Class[]
getExceptionTypes()
Get the exception types this method says it throws, in no particular order.
int
getModifiers()
Gets the modifiers this method uses.
String
getName()
Gets the name of this method.
Class[]
getParameterTypes()
Get the parameter list for this method, in declaration order.
Class
getReturnType()
Gets the return type of this method.
int
hashCode()
Get the hash code for the Method.
Object
invoke(Object o, Object[] args)
Invoke the method.
String
toString()
Get a String representation of the Method.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.reflect.AccessibleObject

isAccessible, setAccessible, setAccessible

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Method Details

equals

public boolean equals(Object o)
Compare two objects to see if they are semantically equivalent. Two Methods are semantically equivalent if they have the same declaring class, name, parameter list, and return type.
Overrides:
equals in interface Object
Parameters:
o - the object to compare to
Returns:
true if they are equal; false if not

getDeclaringClass

public Class getDeclaringClass()
Gets the class that declared this method, or the class where this method is a non-inherited member.
Specified by:
getDeclaringClass in interface Member
Returns:
the class that declared this member

getExceptionTypes

public Class[] getExceptionTypes()
Get the exception types this method says it throws, in no particular order. If the method has no throws clause, returns a 0-length array (not null).
Returns:
a list of the types in the method's throws clause

getModifiers

public int getModifiers()
Gets the modifiers this method uses. Use the Modifier class to interpret the values. A method can only have a subset of the following modifiers: public, private, protected, abstract, static, final, synchronized, native, and strictfp.
Specified by:
getModifiers in interface Member
Returns:
an integer representing the modifiers to this Member
See Also:
Modifier

getName

public String getName()
Gets the name of this method.
Specified by:
getName in interface Member
Returns:
the name of this method

getParameterTypes

public Class[] getParameterTypes()
Get the parameter list for this method, in declaration order. If the method takes no parameters, returns a 0-length array (not null).
Returns:
a list of the types of the method's parameters

getReturnType

public Class getReturnType()
Gets the return type of this method.
Returns:
the type of this method

hashCode

public int hashCode()
Get the hash code for the Method. The Method hash code is the hash code of its name XOR'd with the hash code of its class name.
Overrides:
hashCode in interface Object
Returns:
the hash code for the object

invoke

public Object invoke(Object o,
                     Object[] args)
            throws IllegalAccessException,
                   InvocationTargetException
Invoke the method. Arguments are automatically unwrapped and widened, and the result is automatically wrapped, if needed.

If the method is static, o will be ignored. Otherwise, the method uses dynamic lookup as described in JLS 15.12.4.4. You cannot mimic the behavior of nonvirtual lookup (as in super.foo()). This means you will get a NullPointerException if o is null, and an IllegalArgumentException if it is incompatible with the declaring class of the method. If the method takes 0 arguments, you may use null or a 0-length array for args.

Next, if this Method enforces access control, your runtime context is evaluated, and you may have an IllegalAccessException if you could not acces this method in similar compiled code. If the method is static, and its class is uninitialized, you trigger class initialization, which may end in a ExceptionInInitializerError.

Finally, the method is invoked. If it completes normally, the return value will be null for a void method, a wrapped object for a primitive return method, or the actual return of an Object method. If it completes abruptly, the exception is wrapped in an InvocationTargetException.

Parameters:
o - the object to invoke the method on
args - the arguments to the method
Returns:
the return value of the method, wrapped in the appropriate wrapper if it is primitive
Throws:
IllegalAccessException - if the method could not normally be called by the Java code (i.e. it is not public)
IllegalArgumentException - if the number of arguments is incorrect; if the arguments types are wrong even with a widening conversion; or if o is not an instance of the class or interface declaring this method
InvocationTargetException - if the method throws an exception
NullPointerException - if o is null and this field requires an instance

toString

public String toString()
Get a String representation of the Method. A Method's String representation is "<modifiers> <returntype> <methodname>(<paramtypes>) throws <exceptions>", where everything after ')' is omitted if there are no exceptions.
Example: public static int run(java.lang.Runnable,int)
Overrides:
toString in interface Object
Returns:
the String representation of the Method

java.lang.reflect.Method - reflection of Java methods Copyright (C) 1998, 2001, 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This file is part of GNU Classpath. GNU Classpath is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version. GNU Classpath is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with GNU Classpath; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA. Linking this library statically or dynamically with other modules is making a combined work based on this library. Thus, the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole combination. As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting executable under terms of your choice, provided that you also meet, for each linked independent module, the terms and conditions of the license of that module. An independent module is a module which is not derived from or based on this library. If you modify this library, you may extend this exception to your version of the library, but you are not obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this exception statement from your version.