Package java.lang.reflect

Provides classes and interfaces for obtaining reflective information about classes and objects.

See: Description

Interface Description
AnnotatedArrayType

AnnotatedArrayType represents the potentially annotated use of an array type, whose component type may itself represent the annotated use of a type.

AnnotatedElement

Represents an annotated element of the program currently running in this VM.

AnnotatedParameterizedType

AnnotatedParameterizedType represents the potentially annotated use of a parameterized type, whose type arguments may themselves represent annotated uses of types.

AnnotatedType

AnnotatedType represents the potentially annotated use of a type in the program currently running in this VM.

AnnotatedTypeVariable

AnnotatedTypeVariable represents the potentially annotated use of a type variable, whose declaration may have bounds which themselves represent annotated uses of types.

AnnotatedWildcardType

AnnotatedWildcardType represents the potentially annotated use of a wildcard type argument, whose upper or lower bounds may themselves represent annotated uses of types.

GenericArrayType

GenericArrayType represents an array type whose component type is either a parameterized type or a type variable.

GenericDeclaration

A common interface for all entities that declare type variables.

InvocationHandler

InvocationHandler is the interface implemented by the invocation handler of a proxy instance.

Member

Member is an interface that reflects identifying information about a single member (a field or a method) or a constructor.

ParameterizedType

ParameterizedType represents a parameterized type such as Collection<String>.

Type

Type is the common superinterface for all types in the Java programming language.

TypeVariable<D extends GenericDeclaration>

TypeVariable is the common superinterface for type variables of kinds.

WildcardType

WildcardType represents a wildcard type expression, such as ?, ? extends Number, or ? super Integer.

Class Description
AccessibleObject

The AccessibleObject class is the base class for Field, Method and Constructor objects.

Array

The Array class provides static methods to dynamically create and access Java arrays.

Constructor<T>

Constructor provides information about, and access to, a single constructor for a class.

Executable

A shared superclass for the common functionality of Method and Constructor.

Field

A Field provides information about, and dynamic access to, a single field of a class or an interface.

Method

A Method provides information about, and access to, a single method on a class or interface.

Modifier

The Modifier class provides static methods and constants to decode class and member access modifiers.

Parameter

Information about method parameters.

Proxy

Proxy provides static methods for creating dynamic proxy classes and instances, and it is also the superclass of all dynamic proxy classes created by those methods.

ReflectPermission

The Permission class for reflective operations.

Exception Description
InvocationTargetException

InvocationTargetException is a checked exception that wraps an exception thrown by an invoked method or constructor.

MalformedParameterizedTypeException

Thrown when a semantically malformed parameterized type is encountered by a reflective method that needs to instantiate it.

MalformedParametersException

Thrown when the java.lang.reflect package attempts to read method parameters from a class file and determines that one or more parameters are malformed.

UndeclaredThrowableException

Thrown by a method invocation on a proxy instance if its invocation handler's invoke method throws a checked exception (a Throwable that is not assignable to RuntimeException or Error) that is not assignable to any of the exception types declared in the throws clause of the method that was invoked on the proxy instance and dispatched to the invocation handler.

Error Description
GenericSignatureFormatError

Thrown when a syntactically malformed signature attribute is encountered by a reflective method that needs to interpret the generic signature information for a type, method or constructor.

Package java.lang.reflect Description

Provides classes and interfaces for obtaining reflective information about classes and objects. Reflection allows programmatic access to information about the fields, methods and constructors of loaded classes, and the use of reflected fields, methods, and constructors to operate on their underlying counterparts, within security restrictions.

AccessibleObject allows suppression of access checks if the necessary ReflectPermission is available.

Array provides static methods to dynamically create and access arrays.

Classes in this package, along with java.lang.Class accommodate applications such as debuggers, interpreters, object inspectors, class browsers, and services such as Object Serialization and JavaBeans that need access to either the public members of a target object (based on its runtime class) or the members declared by a given class.

Since:
JDK1.1

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Documentation extracted from Debian's OpenJDK Development Kit package.
Licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2, with the Classpath Exception.
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https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/lang/reflect/package-summary.html