tagging methods and calling them from a client object by tag

Question

I have been trying to figure out a way to tag several methods from my base class, so that a client class can call them by tag. The example code is:

public class Base {
         public void method1(){     
        ..change state of base class
    }

    public void method2(){      
        ..change state of base class
    }

    public void method3(){      
        ..change state of base class
    }
}

A client class from a main() method will call each method of Base through a random instruction sequence:

public static void main(String[] args) {
String sequence = "ABCAABBBABACCACC"
Base aBase = new Base();
for (int i = 0; i < sequence.length(); i++){
            char temp = sequence.charAt(i);
            switch(temp){
            case 'A':{aBase.method1(); break;}
            case 'B':{aBase.method2(); break;}
            case 'C':{aBase.method3(); break;}          }
        }

        System.out.println(aBase.getState());

    }

Now I wish to get rid of the switch statement altogether from the Client object. I am aware of the technique to replace switch by polymorphism, but would like to avoid creating a set of new classes. I was hoping to simply store those methods in an appropriate data structure and somehow tag them with a matching character from the sequence.

A map could easily store objects with value/key pairs which could do the job, (as I did here), or the command pattern, but since I don't want to replace those methods with objects, is there a different way perhaps, to store methods and have a client selectively call them?

Any advice is appreciated

Answer 1

Something like this?

public class Base {

    private final Map<Character, Method> methods = new HashMap<Character, Method>();

    public Base() throws SecurityException, NoSuchMethodException {
        methods.put('A', getClass().getMethod("method1"));
        methods.put('B', getClass().getMethod("method2"));
        methods.put('C', getClass().getMethod("method3"));
    }

    public Method getMethod(char c) {
        return methods.get(c);
    }

    public void method1() {}

    public void method2() {}

    public void method3() {}

}

and then

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        String sequence = "ABCAABBBABACCACC";
        Base aBase = new Base();

        for (int i = 0; i < sequence.length(); i++) {
            char temp = sequence.charAt(i);
            aBase.getMethod(temp).invoke(aBase);
        }
    }

Answer 2

I would use annotations on the methods in question, allowing it to be marked as a "tagged method", and providing the tag string to use for that method.

From that point the implementation gets simpler; you can use reflection to iterate over a class' methods and inspect their annotations; perhaps do this statically at startup and populate a mapping from tag string to java.lang.reflect.Method.

Then when processing the command string, invoke the methods that correspond to each tag.

Edit: some example code:

import java.lang.annotation.*; 

@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@interface TaggedMethod {
    String tag();
}

Then in the base class:

public class Base {

   @TaggedMethod(tag = "A")
   public void method1(){         
    ..change state of base class
   }

   @TaggedMethod(tag = "B")
   public void method2(){              
    ..change state of base class
   }

   @TaggedMethod(tag = "C")
   public void method3(){              
    ..change state of base class
   }
}

...and in the client:

private static final Map<String, Method> taggedMethods = new HashMap<String, Method>();

// Set up the tag mapping
static
{
   for (Method m : Base.class.getDeclaredMethods())
   {
      TaggedMethod annotation = m.getAnnotation(TaggedMethod.class)
      if (annotation != null)
      {
         taggedMethods.put(annotation.tag(), m);
      }
   }
}

so that you can access this as:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
{
   String sequence = "ABCAABBBABACCACC"
   Base aBase = new Base();
   for (int i = 0; i < sequence.length(); i++)
   {
            String temp = sequence.substring(i,1);
            Method method = taggedMethods.get(temp);
            if (method != null)
            {
                // Error handling of invocation exceptions not included
                method.invoke(aBase);
            }
            else
            {
               // Unrecognised tag - handle however
            }
    }

    System.out.println(aBase.getState());

}

This code hasn't been compiled or tested, by the way... :-)

Answer 3

You could use Attributes for this, in C#. For Java, use annotations. Derive a class from the Attribute class, say, TagAttribute, and apply the attribute to the methods.

[global::System.AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method, Inherited = true, AllowMultiple = false)]
public sealed class TagAttribute : Attribute
{
    public TagAttribute(char value)
    {
        this.value = value;
    }

    private char value;
    public char Value
    {
        get { return value; }
    }
}

Apply the attribute to the methods:

public class MyClass
{
    [Tag('A')]
    public void Method1()
    { Console.Write("a"); }

    [Tag('B')]
    public void Method2()
    { Console.Write("b"); }

    [Tag('C')]
    public void Method3()
    { Console.Write("c"); }
}

Invoke the methods using reflection:

private static void CallTaggedMethod(MyClass instance, char value)
{
    MethodInfo methodToCall = null;

    // From the MyClass type...
    Type t = typeof(MyClass);
    // ...get all methods.
    MethodInfo[] methods = t.GetMethods();
    // For each method...
    foreach (MethodInfo mi in methods)
    {
        // ...find all TagAttributes applied to it.
        TagAttribute[] attributes = (TagAttribute[])mi.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(TagAttribute), true);
        if (attributes.Length == 0)
            // No attributes, continue.
            continue;
        // We assume that at most one attribute is applied to each method.
        TagAttribute attr = attributes[0];
        if (attr.Value == value)
        {
            // The values match, so we call this method.
            methodToCall = mi;
            break;
        }
    }

    if (methodToCall == null)
        throw new InvalidOperationException("No method to call.");

    object result = methodToCall.Invoke(
        // Instance object
        instance,
        // Arguments
        new object[0]);

    // 'result' now contains the return value.
    // It is ignored here.
}

Call the CallTaggedMethod from your Main method:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    String sequence = "ABCAABBBABACCACC";
    MyClass inst = new MyClass();

    foreach(char c in sequence)
        CallTaggedMethod(inst, c);

    // The rest.

    Console.ReadLine();
}