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Call static method with reflection

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How do you call a static method using reflection?

In the example above, we first obtain the instance of the class we want to test, which is GreetingAndBye. After we have the class instance, we can get the public static method object by calling the getMethod method. Once we hold the method object, we can invoke it simply by calling the invoke method.

How do you call a static method in Java?

A static method can be called directly from the class, without having to create an instance of the class. A static method can only access static variables; it cannot access instance variables. Since the static method refers to the class, the syntax to call or refer to a static method is: class name. method name.

How do you call a static method from the outside?

Qualifying a static call From outside the defining class, an instance method is called by prefixing it with an object, which is then passed as an implicit parameter to the instance method, eg, inputTF. setText(""); A static method is called by prefixing it with a class name, eg, Math.

How do you call a static method from another class in Java?

Call a static Method in Another Class in Java In the case of a static method, we don't need to create an object to call the method. We can call the static method by using the class name as we did in this example to call the getName() static method.


As the documentation for MethodInfo.Invoke states, the first argument is ignored for static methods so you can just pass null.

foreach (var tempClass in macroClasses)
{
   // using reflection I will be able to run the method as:
   tempClass.GetMethod("Run").Invoke(null, null);
}

As the comment points out, you may want to ensure the method is static when calling GetMethod:

tempClass.GetMethod("Run", BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Static).Invoke(null, null);

You could really, really, really optimize your code a lot by paying the price of creating the delegate only once (there's also no need to instantiate the class to call an static method). I've done something very similar, and I just cache a delegate to the "Run" method with the help of a helper class :-). It looks like this:

static class Indent{    
     public static void Run(){
         // implementation
     }
     // other helper methods
}

static class MacroRunner {

    static MacroRunner() {
        BuildMacroRunnerList();
    }

    static void BuildMacroRunnerList() {
        macroRunners = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()
            .GetTypes()
            .Where(x => x.Namespace.ToUpper().Contains("MACRO"))
            .Select(t => (Action)Delegate.CreateDelegate(
                typeof(Action), 
                null, 
                t.GetMethod("Run", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Static | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Public)))
            .ToList();
    }

    static List<Action> macroRunners;

    public static void Run() {
        foreach(var run in macroRunners)
            run();
    }
}

It is MUCH faster this way.

If your method signature is different from Action you could replace the type-casts and typeof from Action to any of the needed Action and Func generic types, or declare your Delegate and use it. My own implementation uses Func to pretty print objects:

static class PrettyPrinter {

    static PrettyPrinter() {
        BuildPrettyPrinterList();
    }

    static void BuildPrettyPrinterList() {
        printers = System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()
            .GetTypes()
            .Where(x => x.Name.EndsWith("PrettyPrinter"))
            .Select(t => (Func<object, string>)Delegate.CreateDelegate(
                typeof(Func<object, string>), 
                null, 
                t.GetMethod("Print", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Static | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Public)))
            .ToList();
    }

    static List<Func<object, string>> printers;

    public static void Print(object obj) {
        foreach(var printer in printers)
            print(obj);
    }
}

Class that will call the methods:

namespace myNamespace
{
    public class myClass
    {
        public static void voidMethodWithoutParameters()
        {
            // code here
        }
        public static string stringReturnMethodWithParameters(string param1, string param2)
        {
            // code here
            return "output";
        }
    }
}

Calling myClass static methods using Reflection:

var myClassType = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetType(GetType().Namespace + ".myClass");
                    
// calling my void Method that has no parameters.
myClassType.GetMethod("voidMethodWithoutParameters", BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Static).Invoke(null, null);

// calling my string returning Method & passing to it two string parameters.
Object methodOutput = myClassType.GetMethod("stringReturnMethodWithParameters", BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Static).Invoke(null, new object[] { "value1", "value1" });
Console.WriteLine(methodOutput.ToString());

Note: I don't need to instantiate an object of myClass to use it's methods, as the methods I'm using are static.

Great resources:

  • How C# Reflection Works
  • MethodBase.Invoke Method