Java Programming

Course

Reflection API

Faculty of Information Technologies

Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City

1
Session objectives

1. Introduction
2. The Class object
1. Getting Constructors
2. Getting Fields
3. Getting Methods
4. Array Object
3. Invoke methods dynamically

2
Java looking at Java

• One of the unusual capabilities of Java is that a program can

examine itself
o You can determine the class of an object
o You can find out all about a class: its access modifiers,
superclass, fields, constructors, and methods
o You can find out what what is in an interface
o Even if you don’t know the names of things when you write
the program, you can:
• Create an instance of a class
• Get and set instance variables
• Invoke a method on an object
• Create and manipulate arrays
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What is reflection for?

• In “normal” programs you don’t need reflection

• You do need reflection if you are working with programs that
process programs
• Typical examples:
o A class browser
o A debugger
o A GUI builder
o An IDE, such as BlueJ, Netbeans oe eclipse
o A program to grade student programs

4
Reflection

• Reflection là kĩ thuật rất cần thiết để lấy các thông

tin của một kiểu dữ liệu.
• Dựa vào đó ta có thể kích hoạt (như các phương
thức) hoặc tạo thể hiện của kiểu dữ liệu đó

5
Kiến trúc của Java Reflection API

• Các lớp được dùng trong reflection nằm trong hai package là
java.lang và java.lang.reflect.
• Package java.lang.reflect bao gồm ba lớp chính cần biết là
Constructor, Field và Method

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Kiến trúc của Java Reflection API

• Class<T>: lớp này đại diện cho các lớp, interface và chứa các

phương thức dùng để lấy các đối tượng kiểu Constructor, Field,

Method,…

• AccessibleObject: các kiểm tra về phạm vi truy xuất (public,

private, protected) của field, method, constructor sẽ được bỏ qua.

Constructor: chứa các thông tin về một constructor của lớp.

• Field: chứa các thông tin về một field của lớp, interface.

• Method: chứa các thông tin về một phương thức của lớp, interface.

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 Tạo đối tượng Class<>
• Đối tượng kiểu này được tạo ra bằng cách sử dụng phương thức
static Class.forName():

Class<?> cls = Class.forName("demo.NhanVien");

==> ClassNotFoundException

Class cls = demo.NhanVien.class;

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 The Class class
• To find out about a class, first get its Class object
o If you have an object obj, you can get its class object with
Class c = obj.getClass();
o You can get the class object for the superclass of a Class c
with
Class sup = c.getSuperclass();
o If you know the name of a class (say, Button) at compile
time, you can get its class object with
Class c = Button.class;
o If you know the name of a class at run time (in a String
variable str), you can get its class object with
Class c = class.forName(str);
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Getting the class name

• If you have a class object c, you can get the name of the class
with c.getName()
• getName returns the fully qualified name; that is,
Class c = Button.class;
String s = c.getName();
System.out.println(s);
will print
java.awt.Button
• Class Class and its methods are in java.lang, which is always
imported and available

10
Getting all the superclasses

• getSuperclass() returns a Class object (or null if you call

it on Object, which has no superclass)

• Example

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Getting the class modifiers I

• The modifiers (e.g., public, final, abstract etc.) of a Class object is

encoded in an int and can be queried by the method getModifiers().
• To decode the int result, we need methods of the Modifier class, which is
in java.lang.reflect, so:
import java.lang.reflect.*;
• Then we can do things like:
if (Modifier.isPublic(m))
System.out.println("public");
• Or
String modifier=
Modifier.toString(cls.getModifiers())
System.out.println(modifier);
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Getting the class modifiers II

• Modifier contains these methods (among others):

o public static boolean isAbstract(int)
o public static boolean isFinal(int)
o public static boolean isInterface(int)
o public static boolean isPrivate(int)
o public static boolean isProtected(int)
o public static boolean isPublic(int)
o public static String toString(int)
• This will return a string such as
"public final synchronized strictfp"

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Getting interfaces

• A class can implement zero or more interfaces

• getInterfaces() returns an array of Class objects
• Ex:

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Examining classes and interfaces

• The class Class represents both classes and interfaces

• To determine if a given Class object c is an interface, use
c.isInterface()
• To find out more about a class object, use:
o getModifiers()
o getFields() // "fields" == "instance variables"
o getConstructors()
o getMethods()
o isArray()

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Getting Fields

• public Field[] getFields() throws SecurityException

o Returns an array of public Fields (including inherited fields).
o The length of the array may be zero
o The fields are not returned in any particular order
o Both locally defined and inherited instance variables are
returned, but not static variables.
• public Field getField(String name)
throws NoSuchFieldException, SecurityException
o Returns the named public Field
o If no immediate field is found, the superclasses and interfaces
are searched recursively
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Using Fields (1)

• If f is a Field object, then

o f.getName() returns the simple name of the field
o f.getType() returns the type (Class) of the field
o f.getModifiers() returns the Modifiers of the field
o f.toString() returns a String containing access modifiers, the type,
and the fully qualified field name

• Example: public java.lang.String Person.name

o f.getDeclaringClass() returns the Class in which this field is

declared

• note: getFields() may return superclass fields. 17

Using Fields (2)

• The fields of a particular object obj may be accessed with:

o boolean f.getBoolean(obj), int f.getInt(obj), double
f.getDouble(obj), etc., return the value of the field, assuming it is
that type or can be widened to that type
o Object f.get(obj) returns the value of the field, assuming it is an
Object
o void f.set(obj, value), void f.setBoolean(obj, bool), void f.setInt(obj,
i), void f.getDouble(obj, d), etc. set the value of a field

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Getting Constructors of a class

• if c is a Class, then
• c.getConstructors() : Constructor[] return an array of all public
constructors of class c.
• c.getConstructor( Class … paramTypes ) returns a constructor
whose parameter types match those given paramTypes.
Ex:
• String.class.getConstructors().length
> 15;
• String.class.getConstructor( char[].class, int.class,
int.class).toString()
> String(char[], int,int).
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Constructors

• If c is a Constructor object, then

o c.getName() returns the name of the constructor, as a String (this is
the same as the name of the class)
o c.getDeclaringClass() returns the Class in which this constructor is
declared
o c.getModifiers() returns the Modifiers of the constructor
o c.getParameterTypes() returns an array of Class objects, in
declaration order
o c.newInstance(Object… init_args) creates and returns a new instance
of class c
• Arguments that should be primitives are automatically unwrapped as
needed
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Example

• Constructor c = String.class.getConstrucor( char[].class,

int.class, int.class).toString()
 String(char[], int,int).

• String s = c.newInstance(
new char[] {‘a’,’b’,’c’,’d’ }, 1, 2 );
• assert s == “bc”;

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Example

22
Methods

• public Method[] getMethods()

throws SecurityException
o Returns an array of Method objects
o These are the public member methods of the class or interface,
including inherited methods
o The methods are returned in no particular order

• public Method getMethod(String name,

Class… parameterTypes)
throws NoSuchMethodException,
SecurityException
23
Methods

• getDeclaringClass()
o Returns the Class object representing the class or

interface that declares the method represented by

this Method object
• getName()
o Returns the name of the method represented by

this Method object, as a String

• getModifiers()
o Returns the Java language modifiers for the

method represented by this Method object, as an

integer
• getParameterTypes()
o Returns an array of Class objects that represent

the formal parameter types, in declaration order,

of the method represented by this Method object
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Methods

25
Methods

• getReturnType()
o Returns a Class object that represents the formal return type
of the method represented by this Method object
• toString()
o Returns a String describing this Method (typically pretty
long)
• public Object invoke(Object obj, Object… args)
o Invokes the underlying method represented by this Method
object, on the specified object with the specified parameters
o Individual parameters are automatically unwrapped to match
primitive formal parameters 26
Examples of invoke()

• “abcdefg”.length()
> 7
• Method lengthMethod = String.class.getMethod(“length”) ;
• lengthMethod.invoke(“abcdefg”)
>7
• “abcdefg”.substring(2, 5)
> cde
• Method substringMethod = String.class.getMethod
( “substring”, int.class, Integer.TYPE ) ;
• substringEMthod.invoke( “abcdefg”, 2, new Integer(5) )
> cde 27
Examples of invoke()

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Arrays I

• To determine whether an object obj is an array,

o Get its class c with Class c = obj.getClass();
o Test with c.isArray()

• To find the type of components of the array,

o c.getComponentType()
• Returns null if c is not the class of an array

• Ex:
o int[].class.isArray() == true ;
o int[].class.getComponentType() == int.class

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Arrays II

• The Array class in java.lang.reflect provides static methods for

working with arrays
• To create an array,
• Array.newInstance(Class componentType, int size)
o This returns, as an Object, the newly created array
• You can cast it to the desired type if you like
o The componentType may itself be an array
• This would create a multiple-dimensioned array
• The limit on the number of dimensions is usually 255

• Array.newInstance(Class componentType, int… sizes)

o This returns, as an Object, the newly created multidimensional
array (with sizes.length dimensions)
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Examples

• The following two objects are of the same type:

o new String[10]
o Array.newInstance(String.class, 10)

• The following two objects are of the same type:

o new String[10][20]
o Array.newInstance(String.class, 10, 20)

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Arrays III

• To get the value of array elements,

o Array.get(Object array, int index) returns an Object
o Array.getBoolean(Object array, int index) returns a boolean
o Array.getByte(Object array, int index) returns a byte
o etc.
• To store values into an array,
o Array.set(Object array, int index, Object value)
o Array.setInt(Object array, int index, int i)
o Array.setFloat(Object array, int index, float f)
o etc.

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Examples

• a = new int[] {1,2,3,4};

• Array.getInt(a, 2) //  3
• Array.setInt(a, 3, 5 ) // a = {1,2,3, 5 }.

• s = new String[] { “ab”, “bc”, “cd” };

• Array.get(s, 1 ) //  “bc”
• Array.set(s, 1, “xxx”) // s[1] = “xxx”

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Array example

Output

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Getting non-public members of a class

• All getXXX() methods of Class mentioned above return only public

members of the target (as well as ancestor ) classes, but they
cannot return non-public members.
• There are another set of getDeclaredXXX() methods in Class that
will return all (even private or static ) members of target class but
no inherited members are included.
• getDeclaredConstructors(), defDeclaredConstrucor(Class…)
• getDeclaredFields(),
getDeclaredField(String)
• getDeclaredmethods(),
getDeclaredMethod(String, Class…)
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Example

• String.class.getConstructors().length
> 15
• String.class.getDeclaredConstructors().length
> 16.
• Constructor[] cs = String.class.getDeclaredConstructors();
for(Constructor c : cs)
if( ! (Modifier.isPublic(c.getModifiers())))
out.println(c);
> java.lang.String(int,int,char[]) // package

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Create object at runtime

Example class

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Create object dynamically

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Call method dynamically

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ClassLoader

• Dùng URI để đọc nội dung class lên 1 mảng bytes

• Subclassing lớp ClassLoader để tạo đối tượng Class
• Xử lý

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Concluding comments

• Many of these methods throw exceptions not described here

o For details, see the Java API

• Reflection isn’t used in “normal” programs, but when you

need it, it’s indispensable
• Studying the java reflection package gives you a chance to
review the basics of java class structure.

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FAQ

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That’s all for this session!

Thank you all for your attention and

patient !

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