Instances of the class Class
represent classes and interfaces in a running Java application. An enum is a kind of class and an annotation(注释) is a kind of interface. Every array also belongs(属于) to a class that is reflected as aClass
object that is shared(共享) by all arrays with the same element type and number of dimensions. The primitive(原生) Java types (boolean
,byte
, char
, short
, int
, long
, float
, and double
), and the keyword void
are also represented as Class
objects.
Class
has no public constructor. Instead Class
objects are constructed automatically(自动) by the Java Virtual Machine as classes are loaded and by calls to thedefineClass
method in the class loader.
The following example uses a Class
object to print the class name of an object:
void printClassName(Object obj) { System.out.println("The class of " + obj + " is " + obj.getClass().getName()); }
It is also possible to get the Class
object for a named type (or for void) using a class literal (JLS Section15.8.2). For example:
System.out.println("The name of class Foo is: "+Foo.class.getName());
A Method
provides information about, and access to, a single method on a class or interface. The reflected method may be a class method or an instance method (including an abstract method).
A Method
permits(允许) widening (扩展)conversions to occur when matching(匹配) the actual(实际) parameters to invoke with the underlying(底层) method's formal parameters, but it throws anIllegalArgumentException
if a narrowing (收缩)conversion would occur.