Error on storing a method in a variable

Question

Class c = v.getClass();
try {
    Method m = c.getMethod("something");
    if(!m.getReturnType().equals(Boolean.TYPE)) {return false;}
} catch(NoSuchMethodException e) {return false;}

...where v is an object of a certain class.
When I try to compile this, I get:

error: cannot find symbol
Method m = c.getMethod("something");
^

Method is a type which resides in java.lang.reflect.Method. By my knowledge java.lang and anything subsequent is imported by default, but I even did so explicitly:

import java.lang.*;

So my question is: How can I either make my compiler recognise the class Method, or how can I store the returnvalue of getMethod otherwise?

P.S: Please ignore the unchecked call to getMethod, that will be a problem for a different time (so a different question, probably).

Answer 1

The classes from the java.lang. package are automatically imported, but this does not apply for the nested packages. And this is true not only for java.lang.*, but for all packages in general - nested packages are not automatically imported and if you need some class from a nested package, you should explicitly import it. Like this:

import java.lang.reflect.Method;

Answer 2

You need to import java.lang.reflect.Method or java.lang.reflect.*. Importing java.lang.* doesn't include the java.lang.reflect package, since java.lang.reflect is not a sub-package of java.lang (there is no package hierarchy in Java).