Documentation  › java.lang.reflect  › Method
 
 


  Method
  public final

  Inherits From:   AccessibleObject : Object
  Conforms To:   Member
  Declared In:   java.lang.reflect


Class Description
 
A Method provides information about, and access to, a single method on a class or interface. The reflected method may be a class method or an instance method (including an abstract method).

A Method permits widening conversions to occur when matching the actual parameters to invokewith the underlying method's formal parameters, but it throws an IllegalArgumentException if a narrowing conversion would occur.



Class Variables
 
None declared in this class.


Instance Variables
 
None declared in this class.


Constructors
 
None declared in this class.


Class Methods
 
None declared in this class.


Instance Methods
 
equals
public boolean equals( Object obj )

Compares this Method against the specified object. Returns true if the objects are the same. Two Methods are the same if they were declared by the same class and have the same name and formal parameter types and return type.


getDeclaringClass
public Class getDeclaringClass( )

Returns the Class object representing the class or interface that declares the method represented by this Method object.


getExceptionTypes
public Class[] getExceptionTypes( )

Returns an array of Class objects that represent the types of the exceptions declared to be thrown by the underlying method represented by this Method object. Returns an array of length 0 if the method declares no exceptions in its throws clause.


getModifiers
public int getModifiers( )

Returns the Java language modifiers for the method represented by this Method object, as an integer. The Modifier class should be used to decode the modifiers.


getName
public String getName( )

Returns the name of the method represented by this Method object, as a String.


getParameterTypes
public Class[] getParameterTypes( )

Returns an array of Class objects that represent the formal parameter types, in declaration order, of the method represented by this Method object. Returns an array of length 0 if the underlying method takes no parameters.


getReturnType
public Class getReturnType( )

Returns a Class object that represents the formal return type of the method represented by this Method object.


hashCode
public int hashCode( )

Returns a hashcode for this Method. The hashcode is computed as the exclusive-or of the hashcodes for the underlying method's declaring class name and the method's name.


invoke
public Object invoke( Object obj, Object[] args ) throws IllegalAccessException, IllegalArgumentException, InvocationTargetException

Invokes the underlying method represented by this Method object, on the specified object with the specified parameters. Individual parameters are automatically unwrapped to match primitive formal parameters, and both primitive and reference parameters are subject to method invocation conversions as necessary.

If the underlying method is static, then the specified obj argument is ignored. It may be null.

If the number of formal parameters required by the underlying method is 0, the supplied args array may be of length 0 or null.

If the underlying method is an instance method, it is invoked using dynamic method lookup as documented in The Java Language Specification, Second Edition, section 15.12.4.4; in particular, overriding based on the runtime type of the target object will occur.

If the underlying method is static, the class that declared the method is initialized if it has not already been initialized.

If the method completes normally, the value it returns is returned to the caller of invoke; if the value has a primitive type, it is first appropriately wrapped in an object. If the underlying method return type is void, the invocation returns null.


toString
public String toString( )

Returns a string describing this Method. The string is formatted as the method access modifiers, if any, followed by the method return type, followed by a space, followed by the class declaring the method, followed by a period, followed by the method name, followed by a parenthesized, comma-separated list of the method's formal parameter types. If the method throws checked exceptions, the parameter list is followed by a space, followed by the word throws followed by a comma-separated list of the thrown exception types. For example:

 
public boolean java.lang.Object.equals(java.lang.Object) 

The access modifiers are placed in canonical order as specified by "The Java Language Specification". This is public, protected or private first, and then other modifiers in the following order: abstract, static, final, synchronized native.



Known Subclasses
 
None.



 
 
  dydoc
  3/10/05