Java: call a method with name stored in variable

Question

I have a requirement such that:

String command = "click";   // this can have value such as clear, getLocation, getSize, getTagName etc. 
WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver(options); //creating a webdriver object
driver.findElement(By.id("id1")).click(); //Here I want "click" method should be called dynamically as per what I have stored in variable `command`.

So, is there something possible like:

driver.findElement(By.id("id1")).<something to call click()>

I have already looked at Reflection in Java, but that looked to me complex as per my requirement. Any pointers will be helpful!

Answer 1

Your variable represents something you want to do with a web element (in this case, click on it).

The appropriate type for that is not String. Use a Consumer<WebElement> instead (or whatever the type of what driver.findElement() returns is):

Consumer<WebElement> command = e -> e.click();

// ...

command.accept(driver.findElement(By.id("id1")));

This is type-safe, efficient, refactorable, and much more flexible than reflection (since your consumer can do whatever it wants with the element, not limited to a single method call without any argument. Like for example, enter some text in a text field)