How to access all public members of an object recursively using Scala reflection?

Question

I can't find how to access object members RECURSIVELY without knowing/specifying their types. In my case the problem is limited to lazy vals and object members that I want to access. Objects can be nested to any depth with lazy vals present in them. For example:

object TestShallow {
  lazy val value1 = 1
}

object TestDeep {
  lazy val value1 = 1

  object NestedObj {
    lazy val value2 = 2
  }
}

Here is what I have so far:

import scala.reflect.ClassTag
import scala.reflect.runtime.universe._

  def evalMemberValues[A: TypeTag](topLevelObj: A)(implicit c: ClassTag[A]): Unit = {
    val mirror = runtimeMirror(getClass.getClassLoader)

    def loop[B: TypeTag](obj: B)(implicit c: ClassTag[B]): Unit = {
      println(s"INSPECTING: $obj: ${typeOf[B]}")
      val members = typeOf[B].decls.filter(_.isPublic)
      members.foreach { m =>
        if(m.isTerm && m.isModule) {
          println(s"MODULE: $m")
          // THE PROBLEM IS HERE !!!:
          val inst = mirror.reflectModule(m.asModule).instance // type is Any
          loop(inst)
        }
        else if(m.isTerm && ! m.isConstructor && m.isMethod && m.typeSignature.paramLists.isEmpty && ! m.typeSignature.takesTypeArgs) {
          val im = mirror.reflect(obj)
          val value = im.reflectMethod(m.asMethod)()
          println(s"VAL/DEF: $m = $value")
        }
        else {
          println(s"OTHERS: $m")
        }
      }
    }

    loop(topLevelObj)
  }

It works fine for first level declarations:

scala> evalMemberValues(TestShallow)
INSPECTING: $line7.$read$$iw$$iw$$iw$$iw$TestShallow$@1669f4e5: TestShallow.type
OTHERS: constructor TestShallow
VAL/DEF: lazy value value1 = 1

However, it fails to recurse properly:

scala> evalMemberValues(TestDeep)
INSPECTING: $line11.$read$$iw$$iw$$iw$$iw$TestDeep$@3c2f310c: TestDeep.type
OTHERS: constructor TestDeep
VAL/DEF: lazy value value1 = 1
MODULE: object NestedObj
INSPECTING: $line11.$read$$iw$$iw$$iw$$iw$TestDeep$NestedObj$@4f1f2f84: Any
OTHERS: method ==
OTHERS: method !=
OTHERS: method equals
OTHERS: method hashCode
OTHERS: method toString
OTHERS: method getClass
OTHERS: method isInstanceOf
OTHERS: method asInstanceOf
OTHERS: method ##

As you can see the problem is with this line:

val inst = mirror.reflectModule(m.asModule).instance

because it gives me an instance of type Any and information is lost. Ideally I would get an instance with TypeTag and ClassTag details of a proper type that corresponds to m. I didn't find how to get that from Symbol, which is what m is, I guess compiler won't generate that. I also don't see how to cast it using instanceOf[_]. Maybe I could get declarations/members in some other way? All examples I've found don't get instance type dynamically and don't recurse on the instance to get next level declarations.

Additionally, what's a better way to check for Symbol that is val or lazy val? I only see such checks in ModuleSymbol: isVal, isLazy which is kind of strange to me.

Answer 1

This works for me:

  import scala.reflect.runtime.universe._

  def evalMemberValues[A](topLevelObj: A)(implicit c: TypeTag[A]): Unit = {

    val mirror = runtimeMirror(getClass.getClassLoader)

    def loop(obj: Any, tp: Type): Unit = {
      println(s"INSPECTING: $tp:")
      val objMirror = mirror.reflect(obj)
      val members = tp.decls.filter(_.isPublic)
      members.foreach { m =>
        if (m.isTerm && m.isModule) {
          println(s"MODULE: $m")
          loop(mirror.reflectModule(m.asModule).instance, m.info)
        }
        else if (m.isTerm && !m.isConstructor && m.isMethod && m.typeSignature.paramLists.isEmpty && !m.typeSignature.takesTypeArgs) {
          val value = objMirror.reflectMethod(m.asMethod)()
          println(s"VAL/DEF: $m = $value")
        }
        else {
          println(s"OTHERS: $m")

        }
      }
    }

    loop(topLevelObj, c.tpe)
  }

Some explanation:

I am using an implicit TypeTag instead of a ClassTag, because TypeTag comes with the convenient tpe property, which contains full information about the inspected type. I pass this Type property down to the loop method.