Develop Reference

Java serialization read enum to string

There is some legacy Java pojos which was used for binary serialization. Among the fields of one pojo, I have one enum field. Now in the new Java pojo, the enum field is replaced by a string field.
// old pojo with enum
class Test {
private DataType dataType;
private String someOtherField;
}
enum DataType {
Int,
Float,
String
}
// new pojo without enum field
class NewTest {
private String dataType;
private String someOtherField;
}
While reading(de-serializing) the old data, I have used the techniques mentioned here - https://stackoverflow.com/a/14608062/314310 to read old data into the new refactored pojo, which performs successfully for the non enum fields. But reading enum data to string field is almost seems impossible. I am getting exception as
java.lang.ClassCastException: cannot assign instance of demo.DataType to field demo.NewTest.dataType of type java.lang.String in instance of demo.NewTest
Is there anyway I can achieve this?
EDIT:
Here is the code for my custom ObjectInputStream
class MyObjectInputStream extends ObjectInputStream {
private static final Map<String, Class<?>> migrationMap = new HashMap<>();
static {
migrationMap.put("demo.Test", NewTest.class);
migrationMap.put("demo.DataType", String.class);
}
public MyObjectInputStream(InputStream stream) throws IOException {
super(stream);
}
#Override
protected ObjectStreamClass readClassDescriptor() throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException {
ObjectStreamClass resultClassDescriptor = super.readClassDescriptor();
for (final String oldName : migrationMap.keySet()) {
if (resultClassDescriptor != null && resultClassDescriptor.getName().equals(oldName)) {
Class<?> replacement = migrationMap.get(oldName);
try {
resultClassDescriptor = ObjectStreamClass.lookup(replacement);
} catch (Exception e) {
log.error("Error while replacing class name." + e.getMessage(), e);
}
}
}
return resultClassDescriptor;
}
}

Try changing your enum into this:
enum DataType {
Int,
Float,
String;
public static DataType getFromString(String stringDataType) {
for(DataType dataType in DataType.values()) {
if (dataType.toString().equals(stringDataType)) {
return dataType;
}
}
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid input");
}
}
So when you want to assign the Enum to String you call:
newTest.dataType = test.dataType.toString();
And when you want to assign the String to Enum, you call:
test.dataType = DataType.getFromString(newTest.dataType);

How can I use reflection in order to return an "added" enum value from a method?

I am in reference to the following article about reflection and enums:
https://www.niceideas.ch/roller2/badtrash/entry/java_create_enum_instances_dynamically
And the corresponding source code:
import java.lang.reflect.AccessibleObject;
import java.lang.reflect.Array;
import java.lang.reflect.Field;
import java.lang.reflect.Modifier;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import sun.reflect.ConstructorAccessor;
import sun.reflect.FieldAccessor;
import sun.reflect.ReflectionFactory;
public class ReflectionUtils {
private static ReflectionFactory reflectionFactory = ReflectionFactory.getReflectionFactory();
private static void setFailsafeFieldValue(Field field, Object target, Object value) throws NoSuchFieldException,
IllegalAccessException {
// let's make the field accessible
field.setAccessible(true);
// next we change the modifier in the Field instance to
// not be final anymore, thus tricking reflection into
// letting us modify the static final field
Field modifiersField = Field.class.getDeclaredField("modifiers");
modifiersField.setAccessible(true);
int modifiers = modifiersField.getInt(field);
// blank out the final bit in the modifiers int
modifiers &= ~Modifier.FINAL;
modifiersField.setInt(field, modifiers);
FieldAccessor fa = reflectionFactory.newFieldAccessor(field, false);
fa.set(target, value);
}
private static void blankField(Class<?> enumClass, String fieldName) throws NoSuchFieldException,
IllegalAccessException {
for (Field field : Class.class.getDeclaredFields()) {
if (field.getName().contains(fieldName)) {
AccessibleObject.setAccessible(new Field[]{field}, true);
setFailsafeFieldValue(field, enumClass, null);
break;
}
}
}
private static void cleanEnumCache(Class<?> enumClass) throws NoSuchFieldException, IllegalAccessException {
blankField(enumClass, "enumConstantDirectory"); // Sun (Oracle?!?) JDK 1.5/6
blankField(enumClass, "enumConstants"); // IBM JDK
}
private static ConstructorAccessor getConstructorAccessor(Class<?> enumClass, Class<?>[] additionalParameterTypes)
throws NoSuchMethodException {
Class<?>[] parameterTypes = new Class[additionalParameterTypes.length + 2];
parameterTypes[0] = String.class;
parameterTypes[1] = int.class;
System.arraycopy(additionalParameterTypes, 0, parameterTypes, 2, additionalParameterTypes.length);
return reflectionFactory.newConstructorAccessor(enumClass.getDeclaredConstructor(parameterTypes));
}
private static Object makeEnum(Class<?> enumClass, String value, int ordinal, Class<?>[] additionalTypes,
Object[] additionalValues) throws Exception {
Object[] parms = new Object[additionalValues.length + 2];
parms[0] = value;
parms[1] = Integer.valueOf(ordinal);
System.arraycopy(additionalValues, 0, parms, 2, additionalValues.length);
return enumClass.cast(getConstructorAccessor(enumClass, additionalTypes).newInstance(parms));
}
/**
* Add an enum instance to the enum class given as argument
*
* #param <T> the type of the enum (implicit)
* #param enumType the class of the enum to be modified
* #param enumName the name of the new enum instance to be added to the class.
*/
#SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
public static <T extends Enum<?>> void addEnum(Class<T> enumType, String enumName) {
// 0. Sanity checks
if (!Enum.class.isAssignableFrom(enumType)) {
throw new RuntimeException("class " + enumType + " is not an instance of Enum");
}
// 1. Lookup "$VALUES" holder in enum class and get previous enum instances
Field valuesField = null;
Field[] fields = TestEnum.class.getDeclaredFields();
for (Field field : fields) {
if (field.getName().contains("$VALUES")) {
valuesField = field;
break;
}
}
AccessibleObject.setAccessible(new Field[]{valuesField}, true);
try {
// 2. Copy it
T[] previousValues = (T[]) valuesField.get(enumType);
List<T> values = new ArrayList<T>(Arrays.asList(previousValues));
// 3. build new enum
T newValue = (T) makeEnum(enumType, // The target enum class
enumName, // THE NEW ENUM INSTANCE TO BE DYNAMICALLY ADDED
values.size(),
new Class<?>[]{}, // could be used to pass values to the enum constuctor if needed
new Object[]{}); // could be used to pass values to the enum constuctor if needed
// 4. add new value
values.add(newValue);
// 5. Set new values field
setFailsafeFieldValue(valuesField, null, values.toArray((T[]) Array.newInstance(enumType, 0)));
// 6. Clean enum cache
cleanEnumCache(enumType);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
throw new RuntimeException(e.getMessage(), e);
}
}
private static enum TestEnum {
a,
b,
c;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Dynamically add 3 new enum instances d, e, f to TestEnum
addEnum(TestEnum.class, "d");
addEnum(TestEnum.class, "e");
addEnum(TestEnum.class, "f");
// Run a few tests just to show it works OK.
System.out.println(Arrays.deepToString(TestEnum.values()));
// Shows : [a, b, c, d, e, f]
}
}
I somehow need to return one of the new enum values from a method:
public TestEnum theValue() {
return TestEnum.f;
}
Of course, this won't compile. How can I return say f (which is one of the added enum values) from the above method?
edit:
I was thinking of something along the lines of:
private TestEnum testEnum;
#Override
public TestEnum theValue() {
ReflectionUtils.addEnum(TestEnum.class, "f");
//How can I set the testEnum field to have 'f' as a value?
return this.testEnum;
}

Modify your method from
public static <T extends Enum<?>> void addEnum(Class<T> enumType, String enumName)
to
public static <T extends Enum<?>> T addEnum(Class<T> enumType, String enumName)
and return the value from this method.
// 6. Clean enum cache
cleanEnumCache(enumType);
// 7. Clean enum cache
return newvalue;
and return newvalue from the exception block.
However it does not seem a good idea to me to do such reflection - as most other commenters pointed out. If it is not because of non-modifiable third-party sources, you should redesign your problem to work without this kind of enums.

Suggestions on extending fit.RowFixture and fit.TypeAdapter so that I can bind/invoke on a class that keeps attrs in a map

TLDR: I'd like to know how to extend fit.TypeAdaptor so that I can invoke a method that expects parameters as default implementation of TypeAdaptor invokes the binded (bound ?) method by reflection and assumes it's a no-param method...
Longer version -
I'm using fit to build a test harness for my system (a service that returns a sorted list of custom objects). In order to verify the system, I thought I'd use fit.RowFixture to assert attributes of the list items.
Since RowFixture expects the data to be either a public attribute or a public method, I thought of using a wrapper over my custom object (say InstanceWrapper) - I also tried to implement the suggestion given in this previous thread about formatting data in RowFixture.
The trouble is that my custom object has around 41 attributes and I'd like to provide testers with the option of choosing which attributes they want to verify in this RowFixture. Plus, unless I dynamically add fields/methods to my InstanceWrapper class, how will RowFixture invoke either of my getters since both expect the attribute name to be passed as a param (code copied below) ?
I extended RowFixture to bind on my method but I'm not sure how to extend TypeAdaptor so that it invokes with the attr name..
Any suggestions ?
public class InstanceWrapper {
private Instance instance;
private Map<String, Object> attrs;
public int index;
public InstanceWrapper() {
super();
}
public InstanceWrapper(Instance instance) {
this.instance = instance;
init(); // initialise map
}
private void init() {
attrs = new HashMap<String, Object>();
String attrName;
for (AttrDef attrDef : instance.getModelDef().getAttrDefs()) {
attrName = attrDef.getAttrName();
attrs.put(attrName, instance.getChildScalar(attrName));
}
}
public String getAttribute(String attr) {
return attrs.get(attr).toString();
}
public String description(String attribute) {
return instance.getChildScalar(attribute).toString();
}
}
public class MyDisplayRules extends fit.RowFixture {
#Override
public Object[] query() {
List<Instance> list = PHEFixture.hierarchyList;
return convertInstances(list);
}
private Object[] convertInstances(List<Instance> instances) {
Object[] objects = new Object[instances.size()];
InstanceWrapper wrapper;
int index = 0;
for (Instance instance : instances) {
wrapper = new InstanceWrapper(instance);
wrapper.index = index;
objects[index++] = wrapper;
}
return objects;
}
#Override
public Class getTargetClass() {
return InstanceWrapper.class;
}
#Override
public Object parse(String s, Class type) throws Exception {
return super.parse(s, type);
}
#Override
protected void bind(Parse heads) {
columnBindings = new TypeAdapter[heads.size()];
for (int i = 0; heads != null; i++, heads = heads.more) {
String name = heads.text();
String suffix = "()";
try {
if (name.equals("")) {
columnBindings[i] = null;
} else if (name.endsWith(suffix)) {
columnBindings[i] = bindMethod("description", name.substring(0, name.length()
- suffix.length()));
} else {
columnBindings[i] = bindField(name);
}
} catch (Exception e) {
exception(heads, e);
}
}
}
protected TypeAdapter bindMethod(String name, String attribute) throws Exception {
Class partypes[] = new Class[1];
partypes[0] = String.class;
return PHETypeAdaptor.on(this, getTargetClass().getMethod("getAttribute", partypes), attribute);
}
}

For what it's worth, here's how I eventually worked around the problem:
I created a custom TypeAdapter (extending TypeAdapter) with the additional public attribute (String) attrName. Also:
#Override
public Object invoke() throws IllegalAccessException, InvocationTargetException {
if ("getAttribute".equals(method.getName())) {
Object params[] = { attrName };
return method.invoke(target, params);
} else {
return super.invoke();
}
}
Then I extended fit.RowFixture and made the following overrides:
public getTargetClass() - to return my class reference
protected TypeAdapter bindField(String name) throws Exception - this is a protected method in ColumnFixture which I modified so that it would use my class's getter method:
#Override
protected TypeAdapter bindField(String name) throws Exception {
String fieldName = camel(name);
// for all attributes, use method getAttribute(String)
Class methodParams[] = new Class[1];
methodParams[0] = String.class;
TypeAdapter a = TypeAdapter.on(this, getTargetClass().getMethod("getAttribute", methodParams));
PHETypeAdapter pheAdapter = new PHETypeAdapter(fieldName);
pheAdapter.target = a.target;
pheAdapter.fixture = a.fixture;
pheAdapter.field = a.field;
pheAdapter.method = a.method;
pheAdapter.type = a.type;
return pheAdapter;
}
I know this is not a neat solution, but it was the best I could come up with. Maybe I'll get some better solutions here :-)

Accessing Methods and functions of a object whose class type is dynamically known

I have an object A1 of type A. I dynamically find that out , that object A1 is of type A. I now have a property say "Name" which I want to access from A1 , how do I do it ?
Now the biggest problem is that the object A1 can even be of type B. If it is of type B then I will have to obtain the value "Address". Now How I resolve this ?
Below code does the type check ,
public static void testing(Object A1, String s) s - Classtype
{
try{
Class c = Class.forName(s);
if( c.isInstance(A1)) //
{
//Now I know that A1 is of the type C. But I dont know what type 'c' is (whether type A or type B. Because Only then I can access the appropriate member.) Like I said, type A contain 'name' and type B contains address.
// The access may not only be a member but also a method .
}
}catch (Exception e){ System.out.println(e);}
}
Any pointers would help a lot . thanks

You can know the declared fields of class
Class cls = Class.forName("MyClass");
Field fieldlist[] = cls.getDeclaredFields();
Documentation

This kind of thing is tricky and error-prone if you do it manually. You should use one of the many BeanUtils / BeanHelper classes that almost every major framework contains. Here is my own quick example implementation which you can use if you want to:
public final class BeanHelper{
/**
* Return a map of an object's properties (key: property name, value:
* property type).
*
* #exception NullPointerException
* if bean is null
*/
public static Map<String, Class<?>> describeProperties(final Object bean){
if(bean == null){
throw new NullPointerException();
}
final Map<String, Class<?>> map;
final Class<?> beanClass = bean.getClass();
if(PROPERTIES_CACHE.containsKey(beanClass)){
map = PROPERTIES_CACHE.get(beanClass);
} else{
final PropertyDescriptor[] propertyDescriptors =
getBeanInfo(beanClass);
if(propertyDescriptors.length == 0){
map = Collections.emptyMap();
} else{
final Map<String, Class<?>> innerMap =
new TreeMap<String, Class<?>>();
for(final PropertyDescriptor pd : propertyDescriptors){
innerMap.put(pd.getName(), pd.getPropertyType());
}
map = Collections.unmodifiableMap(innerMap);
}
PROPERTIES_CACHE.put(beanClass, map);
}
return map;
}
private static PropertyDescriptor[] getBeanInfo(final Class<?> beanClass){
try{
return Introspector.getBeanInfo(beanClass, Object.class)
.getPropertyDescriptors();
} catch(final IntrospectionException e){
throw new IllegalStateException(
MessageFormat.format(
"Couldn''t access bean properties for class {0}",
beanClass),
e);
}
}
/**
* Retrieve a named property from a specified object.
*
* #return the property
* #exception NullPointerException
* if one of the arguments is null
* #exception IllegalArgumentException
* if there is no such property
*/
public static Object getBeanProperty(final Object bean,
final String property){
if(bean == null || property == null){
throw new NullPointerException();
}
final Class<?> beanClass = bean.getClass();
Map<String, PropertyDescriptor> propMap;
if(PROPERTY_DESCRIPTOR_CACHE.containsKey(beanClass)){
propMap = PROPERTY_DESCRIPTOR_CACHE.get(beanClass);
} else{
final PropertyDescriptor[] beanInfo = getBeanInfo(beanClass);
if(beanInfo.length == 0){
propMap = Collections.emptyMap();
} else{
propMap =
new HashMap<String, PropertyDescriptor>(beanInfo.length);
for(final PropertyDescriptor pd : beanInfo){
propMap.put(pd.getName(), pd);
}
}
PROPERTY_DESCRIPTOR_CACHE.put(beanClass, propMap);
}
if(!propMap.containsKey(property)){
throw new IllegalArgumentException(
MessageFormat.format(
"Class {0} does not have a property ''{1}''",
beanClass,
property));
}
return invokeMethod(propMap.get(property).getReadMethod(), bean);
}
private static Object invokeMethod(final Method method,
final Object bean,
final Object... args){
try{
return method.invoke(bean, args);
} catch(final IllegalArgumentException e){
throw e;
} catch(final IllegalAccessException e){
throw new IllegalStateException(
MessageFormat.format(
"Method not accessible: {0}",
method),
e);
} catch(final InvocationTargetException e){
throw new IllegalStateException(
MessageFormat.format(
"Error in method: {0}",
method),
e);
}
}
private static final Map<Class<?>, Map<String, Class<?>>>
PROPERTIES_CACHE =
new ConcurrentHashMap<Class<?>, Map<String, Class<?>>>();
private static final Map<Class<?>, Map<String, PropertyDescriptor>>
PROPERTY_DESCRIPTOR_CACHE =
new ConcurrentHashMap<Class<?>, Map<String, PropertyDescriptor>>();
private BeanHelper(){
}
}
Test Code:
public static void main(final String[] args){
class Dummy{
private String foo = "bar";
private String baz = "phleem";
public String getFoo(){
return foo;
}
public void setFoo(final String foo){
this.foo = foo;
}
public String getBaz(){
return baz;
}
public void setBaz(final String baz){
this.baz = baz;
}
}
final Object dummy = new Dummy();
final Map<String, Class<?>> beanProperties =
BeanHelper.describeProperties(dummy);
System.out.println(beanProperties);
for(final String key : beanProperties.keySet()){
System.out.println(MessageFormat.format("{0}:{1}",
key,
BeanHelper.getBeanProperty(dummy, key)));
}
}
Output:
{baz=class java.lang.String, foo=class java.lang.String}
baz:phleem
foo:bar

Look at this: BeanUtils
myUser.setName("Bob");
// can instead be written:
BeanUtils.setProperty(myUser, "name", "Bob");
// and then retrieve:
BeanUtils.getProperty(myUser, "name");

The fields are typically private. So, to access them you have to call
field.setAccessible(true);
BTW, are you sure you really wish to use reflection in this case? Did you probably think about declaring interface? The class (implementation) can be still loaded dynamically.
For example: NameAccessor and AddressAccessor are interfaces.
FirstClass and SecondClass are classes. Let's assume that FirstClass implements NameAccessor and SecondClass implements both interfaces.
Now you can say:
Class clazz = Class.forName("SecondClass");
Object obj = clazz.newInstance();
//......
String name = ((NameAccessor)obj).getName();
String address = ((AddressAccessor)obj).getAddress();
I think (IMHO) that this solution is better than accessing private fields using reflection.

Access to private inherited fields via reflection in Java

I found a way to get inherited members via class.getDeclaredFields();
and acces to private members via class.getFields()
But i'm looking for private inherited fields.
How can i achieve this?

This should demonstrate how to solve it:
import java.lang.reflect.Field;
class Super {
private int i = 5;
}
public class B extends Super {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
B b = new B();
Field f = b.getClass().getSuperclass().getDeclaredField("i");
f.setAccessible(true);
System.out.println(f.get(b));
}
}
(Or Class.getDeclaredFields for an array of all fields.)
Output:
5

The best approach here is using the Visitor Pattern do find all fields in the class and all super classes and execute a callback action on them.
Implementation
Spring has a nice Utility class ReflectionUtils that does just that: it defines a method to loop over all fields of all super classes with a callback: ReflectionUtils.doWithFields()
Documentation:
Invoke the given callback on all fields in the target class,
going up the class hierarchy to get all declared fields.
Parameters:
- clazz - the target class to analyze
- fc - the callback to invoke for each field
- ff - the filter that determines the fields to apply the callback to
Sample code:
ReflectionUtils.doWithFields(RoleUnresolvedList.class,
new FieldCallback(){
#Override
public void doWith(final Field field) throws IllegalArgumentException,
IllegalAccessException{
System.out.println("Found field " + field + " in type "
+ field.getDeclaringClass());
}
},
new FieldFilter(){
#Override
public boolean matches(final Field field){
final int modifiers = field.getModifiers();
// no static fields please
return !Modifier.isStatic(modifiers);
}
});
Output:
Found field private transient boolean javax.management.relation.RoleUnresolvedList.typeSafe in type class javax.management.relation.RoleUnresolvedList
Found field private transient boolean javax.management.relation.RoleUnresolvedList.tainted in type class javax.management.relation.RoleUnresolvedList
Found field private transient java.lang.Object[] java.util.ArrayList.elementData in type class java.util.ArrayList
Found field private int java.util.ArrayList.size in type class java.util.ArrayList
Found field protected transient int java.util.AbstractList.modCount in type class java.util.AbstractList

This'll do it:
private List<Field> getInheritedPrivateFields(Class<?> type) {
List<Field> result = new ArrayList<Field>();
Class<?> i = type;
while (i != null && i != Object.class) {
Collections.addAll(result, i.getDeclaredFields());
i = i.getSuperclass();
}
return result;
}
If you use a code coverage tool like EclEmma, you have to watch out: they add a hidden field to each of your classes. In the case of EclEmma, these fields are marked synthetic, and you can filter them out like this:
private List<Field> getInheritedPrivateFields(Class<?> type) {
List<Field> result = new ArrayList<Field>();
Class<?> i = type;
while (i != null && i != Object.class) {
for (Field field : i.getDeclaredFields()) {
if (!field.isSynthetic()) {
result.add(field);
}
}
i = i.getSuperclass();
}
return result;
}

public static Field getField(Class<?> clazz, String fieldName) {
Class<?> tmpClass = clazz;
do {
try {
Field f = tmpClass.getDeclaredField(fieldName);
return f;
} catch (NoSuchFieldException e) {
tmpClass = tmpClass.getSuperclass();
}
} while (tmpClass != null);
throw new RuntimeException("Field '" + fieldName
+ "' not found on class " + clazz);
}
(based on this answer)

In fact i use a complex type hierachy so you solution is not complete.
I need to make a recursive call to get all the private inherited fields.
Here is my solution
/**
* Return the set of fields declared at all level of class hierachy
*/
public static List<Field> getAllFields(Class<?> clazz) {
return getAllFieldsRec(clazz, new ArrayList<>());
}
private static List<Field> getAllFieldsRec(Class<?> clazz, List<Field> list) {
Class<?> superClazz = clazz.getSuperclass();
if (superClazz != null) {
getAllFieldsRec(superClazz, list);
}
list.addAll(Arrays.asList(clazz.getDeclaredFields()));
return list;
}

private static Field getField(Class<?> clazz, String fieldName) {
Class<?> tmpClass = clazz;
do {
for ( Field field : tmpClass.getDeclaredFields() ) {
String candidateName = field.getName();
if ( ! candidateName.equals(fieldName) ) {
continue;
}
field.setAccessible(true);
return field;
}
tmpClass = tmpClass.getSuperclass();
} while ( clazz != null );
throw new RuntimeException("Field '" + fieldName +
"' not found on class " + clazz);
}

I needed to add support for inherited fields for blueprints in Model Citizen. I derived this method that is a bit more concise for retrieving a Class' fields + inherited fields.
private List<Field> getAllFields(Class clazz) {
List<Field> fields = new ArrayList<Field>();
fields.addAll(Arrays.asList(clazz.getDeclaredFields()));
Class superClazz = clazz.getSuperclass();
if(superClazz != null){
fields.addAll(getAllFields(superClazz));
}
return fields;
}

Commons Lang has the util method FieldUtils#getAllFieldsList for this.