web development helpdesk

Reflection allows you to find all the methods of a class using the Class class and it’s getMethods() methods. Clearest way to explain is with an example.

String className = "java.lang.String";
Class clazz = Class.forName(className);
Method[] methods = clazz.getMethods();
for (Method method : methods)
{
	String methodName = method.getName();
	System.out.println(methodName);
}

written by objects \\ tags: class, method, reflection

Static methods cannot call non-static methods. An instance of the class is required to call its methods and static methods are not accociated with an instance (they are class methods). To fix it you have a few choices depending on your exact needs.

/**
*  Will not compile
*/

public class StaticReferenceToNonStatic
{
   public static void myMethod()
   {
      // Cannot make a static reference
      // to the non-static method
      myNonStaticMethod();
   }

   public void myNonStaticMethod()
   {
   }
}

/**
* you can make your method non-static
*/

public class MyClass
{
   public void myMethod()
   {
      myNonStaticMethod();
   }

   public void myNonStaticMethod()
   {
   }
}

/**
*  you can provide an instance of the
*  class to your static method for it
*  to access methods from
*/

public class MyClass
{
   public static void myStaticMethod(MyClass o)
   {
      o.myNonStaticMethod();
   }

   public void myNonStaticMethod()
   {
   }
}

/**
*  you can make the method static
*/

public class MyClass
{
   public static void myMethod()
   {
      f();
   }

   public static void f()
   {
   }
}

written by objects \\ tags: method, static