get Name of enclosing Method

Question

having the method

public void foo(){
  //..    
}

Is there a way to get the methodName (in this case foo) at runtime?

I know how to get the classname via

this.getClass().getName()

or to get all public methods via Method[] methods = this.getClass().getMethods(); Once I have the method name the parameters would also be important as there could be several methods with same name

Answer 1

I use code like the following:

  /**
   * Proper use of this class is
   *     String testName = (new Util.MethodNameHelper(){}).getName();
   *  or
   *     Method me = (new Util.MethodNameHelper(){}).getMethod();
   * the anonymous class allows easy access to the method name of the enclosing scope.
   */
  public static class MethodNameHelper {
    public String getName() {
      final Method myMethod = this.getClass().getEnclosingMethod();
      if (null == myMethod) {
        // This happens when we are non-anonymously instantiated
        return this.getClass().getSimpleName() + ".unknown()"; // return a less useful string
      }
      final String className = myMethod.getDeclaringClass().getSimpleName();
      return className + "." + myMethod.getName() + "()";
    }

    public Method getMethod() {
      return this.getClass().getEnclosingMethod();
    }
}

Just leave off the className + "." part and see if it meets your needs.

Answer 2

I'm not sure why you need to do this, but you can always create a new Throwable() and getStackTace(), then query StackTraceElement.getMethodName().

As a bonus, you get the whole stack trace up to the execution point, not just the immediately enclosing method.

Related questions

• Java: Determining Current Call Stack (For Diagnostic Purposes)
• Call trace in java

Answer 3

Reflection is one way. Another slow and potentially unreliable way is with a stack trace.

StackTraceElement[] trace = new Exception().getStackTrace();
String name = trace[0].getMethodName();

Same idea but from the thread:

StackTraceElement[] trace = Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace();
String name = trace[0].getMethodName();

Answer 4

Use this code:

System.out.println(new Throwable().getStackTrace()[0].getMethodName());

Answer 5

You can hard code the name.

// The Annotation Processor will complain if the two method names get out of synch
class MyClass
{
    @HardCodedMethodName ( ) 
     void myMethod ( )
     {
          @ HardCodedMethodName // Untried but it seems you should be able to produce an annotation processor that compile time enforces that myname = the method name.
          String myname = "myMethod" ;
          ...
     }
}