Lesson: Arrays and Enumerated Types
From the Java virtual machine's perspective, arrays and enumerated
types (or enums) are just classes. Many of the methods in
Class
may be used on them. Reflection provides a few specific APIs for arrays and
enums. This lesson uses a series of code samples to describe how to
distinguish each of these objects from other classes and operate on them.
Various errors are also be examined.
Arrays
Arrays have a component type and a length (which is not part of the type).
Arrays may be maniuplated either in their entirety or component by component.
Reflection provides the
java.lang.reflect.Array
class for the latter purpose.
Enumerated Types
Enums are treated very much like ordinary classes in reflection code.
Class.isEnum()
tells whether a
Class
represents and enum.
Class.getEnumConstants()
retrieves the enum constants defined in an enum.
java.lang.reflect.Field.isEnumConstant()
indicates whether a field is an enumerated type.
