Accessing private variables in Java via reflection [duplicate]

Question

I'm trying to write a method that will get a private field in a class using reflection.

Here's my class (simplified for this example):

public class SomeClass {     private int myField;      public SomeClass() {         myField = 42;     }      public static Object getInstanceField(Object instance, String fieldName) throws Throwable {         Field field = instance.getClass().getDeclaredField(fieldName);         return field.get(instance);     } } 

So say I do this:

SomeClass c = new SomeClass(); Object val = SomeClass.getInstanceField(c, "myField"); 

I'm getting an IllegalAccessException because myField is private. Is there a way to get/set private variables using reflection? (I've done it in C#, but this is the first time I've tried it in Java). If you're wondering why there is the need to do such madness :), it's because sometimes during unit testing it's handy to set private variables to bogus values for failure testing, etc.

Answer 1

Figured it out. Need

field.setAccessible(true);