Access to private inherited fields via reflection in Java
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
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;
}
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