C# 6.0 introduced the nameof() operator, that returns a string representing the name of any class / function / method / local-variable / property identifier put inside it.
If I have a class like this:
class MyClass
{
public SomeOtherClass MyProperty { get; set; }
public void MyMethod()
{
var aLocalVariable = 12;
}
}
I can use the operator like this:
// with class name:
var s = nameof(MyClass); // s == "MyClass"
// with properties:
var s = nameof(MyClass.OneProperty); // s == "OneProperty"
// with methods:
var s = nameof(MyClass.MyMethod); // s == "MyMethod"
// with local variables:
var s = nameof(aLocalVariable); // s == "aLocalVariable".
This is useful since the correct string is checked at compile time. If I misspell the name of some property/method/variable, the compiler returns an error. Also, if I refactor, all the strings are automatically updated. See for example this documentation for real use cases.
Is there any equivalent of that operator in Java? Otherwise, how can I achieve the same result (or similar)?
It can be done using runtime byte code instrumentation, for instance using Byte Buddy library.
See this library: https://github.com/strangeway-org/nameof
The approach is described here: http://in.relation.to/2016/04/14/emulating-property-literals-with-java-8-method-references/
Usage example:
public class NameOfTest {
#Test
public void direct() {
assertEquals("name", $$(Person.class, Person::getName));
}
#Test
public void properties() {
assertEquals("summary", Person.$(Person::getSummary));
}
}
Sadly, there is nothing like this. I had been looking for this functionality a while back and the answer seemed to be that generally speaking, this stuff does not exist.
See Get name of a field
You could, of course, annotate your field with a "Named" annotation to essentially accomplish this goal for your own classes. There's a large variety of frameworks that depend upon similar concepts, actually. Even so, this isn't automatic.
You can't.
You can get a Method or Field using reflection, but you'd have to hardcode the method name as a String, which eliminates the whole purpose.
The concept of properties is not built into java like it is in C#. Getters and setters are just regular methods. You cannot even reference a method as easily as you do in your question. You could try around with reflection to get a handle to a getter method and then cut off the get to get the name of the "property" it resembles, but that's ugly and not the same.
As for local variables, it's not possible at all.
You can't.
If you compile with debug symbols then the .class file will contain a table of variable names (which is how debuggers map variables back to your source code), but there's no guarantee this will be there and it's not exposed in the runtime.
I was also annoyed that there is nothing comparable in Java, so I implemented it myself: https://github.com/mobiuscode-de/nameof
You can simply use it like this:
Name.of(MyClass.class, MyClass::getProperty)
which would just return the String
"property"
It's also on , so you can add it to your project like this:
<dependency>
<groupId>de.mobiuscode.nameof</groupId>
<artifactId>nameof</artifactId>
<version>1.0</version>
</dependency>
or for Gradle:
implementation 'de.mobiuscode.nameof:nameof:1.0'
I realize that it is quite similar to the library from strangeway, but I thought it might be better not to introduce the strange $/$$ notation and enhanced byte code engineering. My library just uses a proxy class on which the getter is called on to determine the name of the passed method. This allows to simply extract the property name.
I also created a blog post about the library with more details.
Lombok has an experimental feature #FieldNameConstants
After adding annotation you get inner type Fields with field names.
#FieldNameConstants
class MyClass {
String myProperty;
}
...
String s = MyClass.Fields.myProperty; // s == "myProperty"
Related
I'm using Kotlin with Apache Beam and I have a set of DTOs that reference each other and all serialize great for any encoder with Kotlinx Serialization. When I try to use them with Beam I end up having issues because it's looking for all objects, type parameters and nested objects to implement the Java Serializable interface. Problem is, I'm not in control of that with all object types because some come from 3rd-party libraries.
I've implemented my own CustomCoder<T> type that uses Kotlinx Serialization but then I run into issues with my custom coder not being serializable, particularly due to the Kotlinx Serialization plugin-generated Companion object serializer not serializing. Since it's compile-time generated code I don't really have control over that and I can't flag it as #Transient. I tried implementing Externalizable on the coder and it fails as soon as I pass a type argument for T that doesn't implement Serializable or has a nested type argument that doesn't.
Also, Kotlinx Serialization is nice because it doesn't use reflection. It would make a lot of my current headaches disappear if I could just swap out the serialization mechanism somehow and not have to rely on standard Java serialization methods at all or somehow implement Externalizable in a way that just calls out to my own serialization mechanism and ignores the type parameter. Are there any solutions? I don't care how hacky it is, even if the solution involves messing with stuff in the Gradle build config to override something. I'm just not sure how to go about it so any pointers would be a great help!
Alternatively, if I abandon Kotlinx Serialization, are there any simple solutions to make any arbitrarily complex data type serialization just work with Java, even using reflection, without a lot of custom, manual work to handle encoding and decoding? I feel like maybe I'm just missing something obvious. This is my first project with Apache Beam but so far the google is little help.
Mybe late, I develop an annotation processor called beanknife recently, it support generate DTO from any class. You need config by annotation. But you don't need change the original class. This library support configuring on a separate class. Of course you can choose which property you want and which you not need. And you can add new property by the static method in the config class. The most power feature of this library is it support automatically convert a object property to the DTO version. for example
class Pojo1 {
String a;
Pojo b; // circular reference to Pojo2
}
class Pojo2 {
Pojo1 a;
List<Pojo1> b;
Map<List<Pojo1>>[] c;
}
// remove the circular reference in the DTO
#ViewOf(value = Pojo1.class, includePattern = ".*", excludes={Pojo1Meta.b})
class ConfigureOfPojo2 {}
// use the no circular reference versioned dto replace the Pojo1
#ViewOf(value = Pojo2.class, includePattern = ".*")
class ConfigureOfPojo2 {
// convert b to dto version
#OverrideViewProperty(Pojo2Meta.b)
private List<Pojo1View> b;
// convert c to dto version
#OverrideViewProperty(Pojo2Meta.c)
private Map<List<Pojo1View>>[] c;
}
will generate
// meta class, you can use it to reference the property name in a safe way.
class Pojo1Meta {
public final String a = "a";
public final String b = "b";
}
// generated DTO class. The actual one will be more complicate, there are many other method.
class Pojo1View {
private String a;
public Pojo1View read(Pojo1 source) { ... }
... getters and setters ...
}
class Pojo2Meta {
public final String a = "a";
public final String b = "b";
public final String c = "c";
}
class Pojo2View {
private String a;
private List<Pojo1View> b;
private Map<List<Pojo1View>>[] c;
public Pojo1View read(Pojo2 source) { ... }
... getters and setters ...
}
The interest things here is you can safely use the class not exist yet in the source. Although the compiler may complain, all will be ok after compiled. Because all the extra class will be automatically generated just before compiled.
A better approach may be to compile step by step, first add #ViewOf annotations, and then compile, so that all the classes that need to be used later are generated. Compile again after the configuration is complete. The advantage of this is that the IDE will not have grammatical error prompts, and can make better use of the IDE's auto-complete function.
With the support of using generated DTO in the configure class. You can define a Dto without circular reference just like the example. Furthermore, you can define another dto for Pojo2, and remove all property reference the Pojo1 and use it to replace the property b in Pojo1.
I'm new to annotation processing and code generation. I want to find out how can I perform such operation like appending new method to existing class. Here is an example of what I want to do:
Assume that we have a class with with custom annotations like this one:
class SourceClass {
#CustomAnnotation
fun annotatedFun1(vararg argument: Any) {
//Do something
}
#CustomAnnotation
fun annotatedFun2(vararg argument: Any) {
//Do something
}
fun someOtherFun() {
//Do something
}
}
And the result I want to get - extended copy of that class:
class ResultClass {
fun hasFunWithName(name: String): Boolean {
return (name in arrayOf("annotatedFun1", "annotatedFun2"))
}
fun callFunByName(name: String, vararg arguments: Any) {
when (name) {
"annotatedFun1" -> annotatedFun1(*arguments)
"annotatedFun2" -> annotatedFun2(*arguments)
}
}
fun annotatedFun1(vararg argument: Any) {
//Do something
}
fun annotatedFun2(vararg argument: Any) {
//Do something
}
fun someOtherFun() {
//Do something
}
}
I've already found out how to create annotation processor. I'm looking for a method to save all existing fields, properties and methods in source class and to append a few more methods to it.
If it is possible to modify class without creating new one - it would be perfect, but in all tutorials only new classes are created and I didn't find any example where all contents of source class are being copied to another one.
Please, do not advise to use reflection. I need this for android and so reflection is not the option cause of resources cost. I'm looking for compile-time solution.
It is required for custom script language implemented in app and should be used to simplify wrapper classes structure. When this job is done directly in code - it looks awful when such method count exceeds 20 per class.
Here is a good example of Java Annotation Processing I recently worked with.
It's an implementation of #Immutable annotation.
Check out ByteBuddy or Kotlin Poet to understand how additional code generation works.
For Kotlin you do almost the same, check this manual for Kotlin-specific steps.
With Kotlin, you can use extension functions and that is the recommended way of adding new functionality to existing classes that you don't control. https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/extensions.html
You may be abel to follow the pattern used by Project Lombok. See How does lombok work? or the source code for details.
Another option would be to write a new class that extends your source class:
class ResultClass : SourceClass {
fun hasFunWithName(name: String): Boolean {
return (name in arrayOf("annotatedFun1", "annotatedFun2"))
}
fun callFunByName(name: String, vararg arguments: Any) {
when (name) {
"annotatedFun1" -> annotatedFun1(*arguments)
"annotatedFun2" -> annotatedFun2(*arguments)
}
}
}
Or perhaps use composition instead and implemnent cover methods for all the public methods in SourceClass.
If you are not tied to doing this using annotation processing, you could use a separate piece of custom code to process the source code files before compiling. Maybe use a regular expression like /#CustomAnnotation\s+.*fun (\w+)\s*\(([^)]*)\)/gm (Test on Regex101) to find the annotated methods.
If I understood the requirement correctly, the goal is to implement something like described below.
You have a source file C.java that defines the class C like this:
public final class C
{
#Getter
#Setter
private int m_IntValue;
#Getter
#Constructor
private final String m_Text;
}
And now you want to know how to write an annotation processor that jumps in during compilation and modifies the source from C.java that the compiler sees to something like this:
public final class C
{
private int m_IntValue;
public final int getIntValue() { return m_IntValue; }
public final void setIntValue( final int intValue ) { m_IntValue = intValue; }
private final String m_Text;
public final String getText() { return m_Text; }
public C( final String text ) { m_Text = text; }
}
The bad news is, that this is not possible … not with an annotation processor, not for Java 15.
For Java 8 there was a way, using some internal classes with reflection to convince the AP to manipulate the already loaded source code in some way and let the compiler compile it a second time. Unfortunately, it failed more often than it worked …
Currently, an annotation processor can only create a new (in the sense of additional) source file. So one solution could be to extend the class (of course, that would not work for the sample class C above, because the class itself is final and all the attributes are private …
So writing a pre-processor would be another solution; you do not have a file C.java on your hard drive, but one named C.myjava that will be used by that preprocessor to generate C.java, and that in turn is used by the compiler. But that is not done by an annotation processor, but it may be possible to abuse it in that way.
You can also play around with the byte code that was generated by the compiler and add the missing (or additional) functionality there. But that would be really far away from annotation processing …
As a summary: today (as of Java 15), an annotation processor does not allow the manipulation of existing source code (you cannot even exclude some source from being compiled); you can only generate additional source files with an annotation processor.
Is there any way to read and print the object attribute dynamically(Java) ? for example if I have following object
public class A{
int age ;
String name;
float income;
}
public class B{
int age;
String name;
}
public class mainA{
A obj1 = new A();
method(A);
method(B);
}
the output should be like
While running method(A):
Attribute of Object are age,name,income;
While executing method(B):
Attribute of Objects are age,name;
My question is I can pass various object in method(), is there any way I can access the attribute of the differnt object in general.
You want to use The Reflection API. Specifically, take a look at discovering class members.
You could do something like the following:
public void showFields(Object o) {
Class<?> clazz = o.getClass();
for(Field field : clazz.getDeclaredFields()) {
//you can also use .toGenericString() instead of .getName(). This will
//give you the type information as well.
System.out.println(field.getName());
}
}
I just wanted to add a cautionary note that you normally don't need to do anything like this and for most things you probably shouldn't. Reflection can make the code hard to maintain and read. Of course there are specific cases when you would want to use Reflection, but those relatively rare.
Using org.apache.commons.beanutils.PropertyUtils we can do this. If the proper getters and setters are defined for the bean we can also dynamically set the value:
import org.apache.commons.beanutils.PropertyUtils;
import java.beans.PropertyDescriptor;
public class PropertyDescriptorTest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Declaring and setting values on the object
AnyObject anObject = new AnyObject();
anObject.setIntProperty(1);
anObject.setLongProperty(234L);
anObject.setStrProperty("string value");
// Getting the PropertyDescriptors for the object
PropertyDescriptor[] objDescriptors = PropertyUtils.getPropertyDescriptors(anObject);
// Iterating through each of the PropertyDescriptors
for (PropertyDescriptor objDescriptor : objDescriptors) {
try {
String propertyName = objDescriptor.getName();
Object propType = PropertyUtils.getPropertyType(anObject, propertyName);
Object propValue = PropertyUtils.getProperty(anObject, propertyName);
// Printing the details
System.out.println("Property="+propertyName+", Type="+propType+", Value="+propValue);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
To set the value of a particular property:
// Here we have to make sure the value is
// of the same type as propertyName
PropertyUtils.setProperty(anObject, propertyName, value);
Output will be:
Property=class, Type=class java.lang.Class, Value=class genericTester.AnyObject
Property=intProperty, Type=int, Value=1
Property=longProperty, Type=class java.lang.Long, Value=234
Property=strProperty, Type=class java.lang.String, Value=string value
You can use reflection to get every field from your object (if security configuration allows you).
If you need it not for the sake of self-education, then it may be worth using ReflectionUtils from Apache Commons.
You can use reflection, but the API is not very nice to use. But what you are trying to do is not at all object-oriented. The A and B should have method "print yourself" which would output their values (you should specify the method in superclass/interface to call the method using polymorphism).
I think I would consider a different approach.
If you really want to treat these like data is there any reason they couldn't be hashtables (Do they have associated code)?
Reflection will do it but it's a last resort--you should always seriously consider different approaches before dropping to reflection.
Cases where you must access variables like that exist--like database mapping (Hibernate) and injection (Spring). You might want to consider if a packaged solution like that fits your need so that future programmers can understand what you did without learning everything about your specific solution.
Also, Spring injection can do things that might fit your needs.
Also also if you are going to use reflection, seriously consider annotations so that you aren't tying your functionality to what should be simple arbitrary attribute names.
IS it possible to use the java reflection api in GWT client side? I want to use reflections to find the value of a property on a Javabean. Is this possible?
You can use the GWT Generators functionality that allows you to generate code during the GWT compile phase.
Your bean, that you want to introspect, can extend a class that has a method defined as
public Object getProperty(String propertyName){}
Let's call this class IntrospectionBean.
Let's say that you then have your bean defined as:
public class MyBean extends IntrospectionBean {
private String prop1;
private String prop2;
}
The GWT generator will have access to all fields of MyBean and it can generate the getProperty(String propertyName) method during GWT compile time, after iterating through all fields of MyBean.
The generated class might look like this:
public class MyBean extends IntrospectionBean {
private String prop1;
private String prop2;
public Object getProperty(String propertyName) {
if ("propr1".equals(propertyName)) {
return prop1;
}
if ("propr2".equals(propertyName)) {
return prop2;
}
return null;
}
}
You could simply then use myBean.getProperty("prop1") in order to retrieve a property based on it's name at runtime.
Here you can find an example of how to implement a gwt generator
I've been there and the solution indeed is to use Deferred Binding and Generators. You can see a use of Generators to overcome the lack of Reflection in GWT client here:
http://jpereira.eu/2011/01/30/wheres-my-java-reflection/
Hope it helps.
Since GWT code is translated to Javascript direct usage of reflection API is not supported.
There is a small project GWT-Reflection, that allows to use reflection in GWT.
I have made my gwt-reflection library public.
https://github.com/WeTheInternet/xapi/tree/master/gwt/gwt-reflect
https://github.com/WeTheInternet/gwt-sandbox/tree/xapi-gwt/user/src/com/google/gwt/reflect
Due to classpath issues with trying to make Gwt pick my version of Class.java over its own, I finally just forked Gwt, added java 8 and reflection support, and now maintain net.wetheinter:gwt-*:2.7.0 which has this support baked in (I will release a 2.8 some time after Gwt 2.8 goes live)
It supports three levels of reflection:
Monolithic:
// Embeds all data needed to perform reflection into hidden fields of class
GwtReflect.magicClass(SomeClass.class);
SomeClass.getField(fieldName).set(null, 1);
Lightweight:
// Allows direct reflection, provided ALL parameters are literals, or traced to literals
SomeClass.class.getField("FIELD_NAME").set(null, 1);
Flyweight:
// Skips creating a Field object entirely, and just invokes the accessor you want
// All params must be literals here as well
GwtReflect.set(SomeClass.class, "FIELD_NAME", null, 1);
These examples also work for Methods and Constructors. There's basic support for annotations, and more to come in the future.
GWT not support reflection fully, you can see bellow link :
http://www.gwtproject.org/doc/latest/DevGuideCodingBasicsCompatibility.html
You should note the border between java and javascript. In GWT, all code compiles to javascript, so you have to check if JavaScript is a well-defined reflection.
If you just want to use reflection to grab a private field, consider using jsni (javascript native interface) instead; it has no notion of private or public, so you can just grab anything you want like so:
package com.foo;
class SomeClass {
private String someField;
private static int someInt;
}
//accessors:
native String ripField(SomeClass from)
/*-{
return from.#com.foo.SomeClass::someField;
}-*/;
native int ripInt()
/*-{
return #com.foo.SomeClass::someInt;
}-*/;
Also, I am in the middle of finishing up emulation for java.lang.Class newInstance / reflection.
I'll post back here with a link in about two days if you'd like to play with it.
It requires that you pass a class through a method which I route to a custom generator
(like GWT.create, except it returns a generated java.lang.Class with field and method accessors that just point to jsni methods / fields. :)
do they by annotation mean a comment in a code with // or /* */?
No, an annotation is not a comment. An annotation is added to a field, class or method, using the syntax #Annotation. One of the best known annotations is #Override, used to signal a method is overriding one from a super class. For example:
public class MyClass {
#Override
public boolean equals(Object other) {
//...
}
}
See http://download.oracle.com/javase/1,5.0/docs/guide/language/annotations.html for more info.
No, annotations take the form:
#Annotation(property="A")
public class {
#Annotation(property="B")
Object field;
#Annotation(property="C")
public void method() {
}
}
Annotations can be placed on classes, methods or fields. They can provide information at runtime via reflection or compile time via apt (short for Annotation Processing Tool and not the apt package manager).
They are defined as:
#interface Annotation {
String property();
}
See http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/language/annotations.html for more
Actually, before Java5 (i.e. 1.3 or 1.4), comments (// or /* */) were the only way to add annotation (i.e. "metadata") to be acted upon.
One classic example is the way the unit-testing framework TestNg propose all its Java5 #Annotations as comments if you are using TestNg with Java 1.4.
But that means, for Testng to launch the proper test suite, it had to access the sources of your program, not just the compiled binary.
Unlike Javadoc tags, Java annotations can be reflective in that they can be embedded in class files generated by the compiler and may be retained by the Java VM to be made retrievable at run-time.
No.
An annotation is a special construct introduced with java 1.5. An annotation adds some meta information to a java class, method or variable. This meta information can be evaluated at compile time (e.g. for generating some extra code with apt) or at runtime (e.g. to match a class to a database table).
Example for a built in annotation:
#Deprecated // this is an annotation
public void myMethod() {
...
}
Annotations are not just for java they also exist in c++, they are somehow similar with those from java.
// MyCode.h
# include <CodeAnalysis/SourceAnnotations.h>
using namespace vc_attributes;
class CMyClass
{
public:
void f ( [Pre ( Valid = Yes )] int *pWidth );
// code ...
};
// MyCode.cpp
#include "MyCode.h"
void CMyClass::f ( [Pre (Valid = Yes)] int pWidth )
{
}
You can check the MSDN for more information:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms182036(VS.80).aspx
An annotation is not a comment but it is used for many purposes such as error debugging as well it is the instruction set to the compiler but it hasn't any effect on the runtime code.
#override,#deprecated and others are the examples of annotation. It can be used with methods,constructors,parameters,variables.
Annotations are used to give detailed information to the compiler whereas Comments are for the convenience of the programmer so that he know how the code is structured.
of course not, but I think annotation ≈ comment.
the core of them is describe, but annotation has more confinement, you are not easy to make mistak, also, you can find mistake in compile time.