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9.1 Obtaining Class and Member Information

Example 9-1 shows a program that uses the Class, Constructor, Field, and Method classes to display information about a specified class. The program's output is similar to the class synopses that appear in Java in a Nutshell. (You might notice that the names of method arguments are not shown; argument names are not stored in class files, so they are not available through the Reflection API.)

Here is the output from using ShowClass on itself:

public class ShowClass extends Object {
  // Constructors
  public ShowClass( );
  // Fields
  // Methods
  public static void main(String[  ]) throws ClassNotFoundException;
  public static String modifiers(int);
  public static void print_class(Class);
  public static String typename(Class);
  public static void print_field(Field);
  public static void print_method_or_constructor(Member);
}

The code for this example is quite straightforward. It uses the Class.forName( ) method to dynamically load the named class, and then calls various methods of the Class object to look up the superclass, interfaces, and members of the class. The example uses Constructor, Field, and Method objects to obtain information about each member of the class.

Example 9-1. ShowClass.java
package je3.reflect;
import java.lang.reflect.*;

/** A program that displays a class synopsis for the named class */
public class ShowClass {
    /** The main method.  Print info about the named class */
    public static void main(String[  ] args) throws ClassNotFoundException {
        Class c = Class.forName(args[0]);
        print_class(c);
    }

    /**
     * Display the modifiers, name, superclass, and interfaces of a class
     * or interface. Then go and list all constructors, fields, and methods.
     **/
    public static void print_class(Class c)
    {
        // Print modifiers, type (class or interface), name, and superclass.
        if (c.isInterface( )) {
            // The modifiers will include the "interface" keyword here...
            System.out.print(Modifier.toString(c.getModifiers( )) + " " +
                             typename(c));
        }
        else if (c.getSuperclass( ) != null) {
            System.out.print(Modifier.toString(c.getModifiers( )) + " class " +
                             typename(c) +
                             " extends " + typename(c.getSuperclass( )));
        }
        else {
            System.out.print(Modifier.toString(c.getModifiers( )) + " class " +
                             typename(c));
        }

        // Print interfaces or super-interfaces of the class or interface.
        Class[  ] interfaces = c.getInterfaces( );
        if ((interfaces != null)&& (interfaces.length > 0)) {
            if (c.isInterface( )) System.out.print(" extends ");
            else System.out.print(" implements ");
            for(int i = 0; i < interfaces.length; i++) {
                if (i > 0) System.out.print(", ");
                System.out.print(typename(interfaces[i]));
            }
        }

        System.out.println(" {");            // Begin class member listing.

        // Now look up and display the members of the class.
        System.out.println("  // Constructors");
        Constructor[  ] constructors = c.getDeclaredConstructors( );
        for(int i = 0; i < constructors.length; i++)   // Display constructors.
            print_method_or_constructor(constructors[i]);

        System.out.println("  // Fields");
        Field[  ] fields = c.getDeclaredFields( );           // Look up fields.
        for(int i = 0; i < fields.length; i++)            // Display them.
            print_field(fields[i]);

        System.out.println("  // Methods");
        Method[  ] methods = c.getDeclaredMethods( );        // Look up methods.
        for(int i = 0; i < methods.length; i++)           // Display them.
            print_method_or_constructor(methods[i]);

        System.out.println("}");             // End class member listing.
    }

    /** Return the name of an interface or primitive type, handling arrays. */
    public static String typename(Class t) {
        String brackets = "";
        while(t.isArray( )) {
            brackets += "[  ]";
            t = t.getComponentType( );
        }
        String name = t.getName( );
        int pos = name.lastIndexOf('.');
        if (pos != -1) name = name.substring(pos+1);
        return name + brackets;
    }

    /** Return a string version of modifiers, handling spaces nicely. */
    public static String modifiers(int m) {
        if (m == 0) return "";
        else return Modifier.toString(m) + " ";
    }

    /** Print the modifiers, type, and name of a field */
    public static void print_field(Field f) {
        System.out.println("  " + modifiers(f.getModifiers( )) +
                           typename(f.getType( )) + " " + f.getName( ) + ";");
    }

    /**
     * Print the modifiers, return type, name, parameter types, and exception
     * type of a method or constructor.  Note the use of the Member interface
     * to allow this method to work with both Method and Constructor objects
     **/
    public static void print_method_or_constructor(Member member) {
        Class returntype=null, parameters[  ], exceptions[  ];
        if (member instanceof Method) {
            Method m = (Method) member;
            returntype = m.getReturnType( );
            parameters = m.getParameterTypes( );
            exceptions = m.getExceptionTypes( );
            System.out.print("  " + modifiers(member.getModifiers( )) +
                             typename(returntype) + " " + member.getName( ) +
                             "(");
        } else {
            Constructor c = (Constructor) member;
            parameters = c.getParameterTypes( );
            exceptions = c.getExceptionTypes( );
            System.out.print("  " + modifiers(member.getModifiers( )) +
                             typename(c.getDeclaringClass( )) + "(");
        }

        for(int i = 0; i < parameters.length; i++) {
            if (i > 0) System.out.print(", ");
            System.out.print(typename(parameters[i]));
        }
        System.out.print(")");
        if (exceptions.length > 0) System.out.print(" throws ");
        for(int i = 0; i < exceptions.length; i++) {
            if (i > 0) System.out.print(", ");
            System.out.print(typename(exceptions[i]));
        }
        System.out.println(";");
    }
}
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