Is it possible to extract all members, including private ones, from a class in Java using reflection?

Question

I would like to write, for example

Method[] getMethods(Class<?> c) 

which will do the same as existing

 Class.getMethods() 

but also include private and protected methods. Any ideas how I could do this?

Answer 1

 public Method[] getMethods(Class<?> c) { List<Method> methods = new ArrayList<Method>(); while (c != Object.class) { methods.addAll(Arrays.asList(c.getDeclaredMethods())); c = c.getSuperclass(); } return methods.toArray(new Method[methods.size()]); } 

Explain:

• getDeclaredMethods returns all methods declared by a specific class, but not its superclasses
• c.getSuperclass() returns the immediate superclass of this class
• so recursive hierarchy, before Object , you get all the methods
• if you want to include Object methods, then let the condition be while (c != null)

Answer 2

Use Class.getDeclaredMethods() . Note that unlike getMethods() , this will not return the inherited methods - therefore, if you want everything, you will need to restore the type hierarchy.

Answer 3

The Javadoc documentation describes all the details.