Any way to Invoke a private method?

If the method accepts non-primitive data type then the following method can be used to invoke a private method of any class:

public static Object genericInvokeMethod(Object obj, String methodName,
            Object... params) {
        int paramCount = params.length;
        Method method;
        Object requiredObj = null;
        Class<?>[] classArray = new Class<?>[paramCount];
        for (int i = 0; i < paramCount; i++) {
            classArray[i] = params[i].getClass();
        }
        try {
            method = obj.getClass().getDeclaredMethod(methodName, classArray);
            method.setAccessible(true);
            requiredObj = method.invoke(obj, params);
        } catch (NoSuchMethodException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (InvocationTargetException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        return requiredObj;
    }

The Parameter accepted are obj, methodName and the parameters. For example

public class Test {
private String concatString(String a, String b) {
    return (a+b);
}
}

Method concatString can be invoked as

Test t = new Test();
    String str = (String) genericInvokeMethod(t, "concatString", "Hello", "Mr.x");

you can do this using ReflectionTestUtils of Spring (org.springframework.test.util.ReflectionTestUtils)

ReflectionTestUtils.invokeMethod(instantiatedObject,"methodName",argument);

Example : if you have a class with a private method square(int x)

Calculator calculator = new Calculator();
ReflectionTestUtils.invokeMethod(calculator,"square",10);

Use getDeclaredMethod() to get a private Method object and then use method.setAccessible() to allow to actually call it.


You can invoke private method with reflection. Modifying the last bit of the posted code:

Method method = object.getClass().getDeclaredMethod(methodName);
method.setAccessible(true);
Object r = method.invoke(object);

There are a couple of caveats. First, getDeclaredMethod will only find method declared in the current Class, not inherited from supertypes. So, traverse up the concrete class hierarchy if necessary. Second, a SecurityManager can prevent use of the setAccessible method. So, it may need to run as a PrivilegedAction (using AccessController or Subject).