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Methods
A
method contains executable code which may be invoked. Methods are
inherited and in non-reflective code behaviors such as overloading, overriding,
and hiding are enforced by the compiler. In contrast, reflective code makes it
possible for method selection to be restricted to a specific class without
considering its superclasses. Superclass methods may be accessed but it is
possible to determine their declaring class; this is impossible to discover
programmatically without reflection and is the source of many subtle bugs.
The
java.lang.reflect.Method
class provides APIs to access information about a method's modifiers, return
type, parameters, annotations, and thrown exceptions. It also be used to
invoke methods. These topics are covered by the following sections:
