What is a java.lang.reflect.Field#slot? - reflection

Does java.lang.reflect.Field#slot hold a sequence number in the order how fields were declared in the source file?
I know its private and I should not use it and stuff but anyway...

Field.slot meaning is implementation defined. In HotSpot JVM it contains the index into the VM's internal field array for the given class. slot field is set inside JVM runtime when a Field object is created, see reflection.cpp.
This index does not necessarily match the order of the fields in Java source file. It is neither related to the offset of the field from the object header. It is better not to make any assumptions about the meaning of slot. The key meaning is to allow JVM to quickly map a java.lang.reflect.Field object to the internal Field representation in Metaspace.

The field is allocated by the JVM (I can't find anything setting it in Java code) and contains some kind of index of the method in the class. A simple program can tell you a bit about it:
package slot;
import java.lang.reflect.Field;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;
public class SlotTester {
public void method1() {
}
public void method2() {
}
public static void method3() {
}
public void method4() {
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
SlotTester s = new SlotTester();
Method[] methods = s.getClass().getMethods();
for (Method method : methods) {
Field f = method.getClass().getDeclaredField("slot");
f.setAccessible(true);
Integer slot = (Integer) f.get(method);
System.out.println(method.getName() + " " + slot);
}
}
}
Displays:
main 1
method1 2
method2 3
method3 4
method4 5
wait 3
wait 4
wait 5
equals 6
toString 7
hashCode 8
getClass 9
notify 12
notifyAll 13
So the methods in the subclass appear to have the lowest indices, followed by those in Object, and some indices are not unique (though perhaps they are within the declared class).
So I would not like to rely on the value for anything.

Related

How do I get the strongly-typed value of an OutArgument in code?

Given an Activity (created via the designer) that has several OutArgument properties, is it possible to get their strongly-typed value from a property after invoking the workflow?
The code looks like this:
// generated class
public partial class ActivityFoo : System.Activities.Activity....
{
....
public System.Activities.OutArgument<decimal> Bar { ... }
public System.Activities.OutArgument<string> Baz { ... }
}
// my class
var activity = new ActivityFoo();
var result = WorkflowInvoker.Invoke(activity);
decimal d = activity.Bar.Get(?)
string s = activity.Baz.Get(?)
The T Get() method on OutArgument<T> that requires an ActivityContext which I'm not sure how to obtain in code.
I also realize it's possible to get the un-typed values from result["Bar"] and result["Baz"] and cast them, but I'm hoping there's another way.
Updated to make it clear there are multiple Out values, although the question would still apply even if there was only one.
If you look at workflows as code, an Activity is no more than a method that receives input arguments and (potentially) returns output arguments.
It happens that Activities allows one to return multiple output arguments, something that C# methods, for example, don't (actually that's about to change with C# 7 and tuples).
That's why you've an WorkflowInvoker.Invoke() overload which returns a Dictionary<string, object> because the framework obviously doesn't know what\how many\of what type output arguments you have.
Bottom line, the only way for you to do it fully strong-typed is exactly the same way you would be doing on a normal C# method - return one OutArgument of a custom type:
public class ActivityFooOutput
{
public decimal Bar { get; set }
public decimal Baz { get; set; }
}
// generated class
public partial class ActivityFoo : System.Activities.Activity....
{
public System.Activities.OutArgument<ActivityFooOutput> Result { ... }
}
// everything's strongly-typed from here on
var result = WorkflowInvoker.Invoke<ActivityFooOutput>(activity);
decimal d = result.Bar;
string s result.Baz;
Actually, if you don't want to create a custom type for it, you can use said tuples:
// generated
public System.Activities.OutArgument<Tuple<decimal, string>> Result { ... }
// everything's strongly-typed from here on
var result = WorkflowInvoker.Invoke<Tuple<decimal, string>>(activity);
decimal d = result.Item1;
string s result.Item2;
Being the first option obviously more scalable and verbose.

Use case example for copyToRealm() in Realm

Could someone give a simple use case example why someone would use copyToRealm() instead of createObject() ?
It is not clear to me why and when would anyone use copyToRealm() if there is createObject().
In the example here they seem pretty much the same https://realm.io/docs/java/latest/ .
copyToRealm() takes an unmanaged object and connects it to a Realm, while createObject() creates an object directly in a Realm.
For example it is very useful when you copy objects generated by GSON - returned from your Rest API into Realm.
realm.createObject() also returns a RealmProxy instance and is manipulated directly and therefore creates N objects to store N objects, however you can use the following pattern to use only 1 instance of object to store N objects:
RealmUtils.executeInTransaction(realm -> {
Cat defaultCat = new Cat(); // unmanaged realm object
for(CatBO catBO : catsBO.getCats()) {
defaultCat.setId(catBO.getId());
defaultCat.setSourceUrl(catBO.getSourceUrl());
defaultCat.setUrl(catBO.getUrl());
realm.insertOrUpdate(defaultCat);
}
});
But to actually answer your question, copyToRealmOrUpdate() makes sense if you want to persist elements, put them in a RealmList<T> and set that RealmList of newly managed objects in another RealmObject. It happens mostly if your RealmObject classes and the downloaded parsed objects match.
#JsonObject
public class Cat extends RealmObject {
#PrimaryKey
#JsonField(name="id")
String id;
#JsonField(name="source_url")
String sourceUrl;
#JsonField(name="url")
String url;
// getters, setters;
}
final List<Cat> cats = //get from LoganSquare;
realm.executeTransaction(new Realm.Transaction() {
#Override
public void execute(Realm realm) {
Person person = realm.where(Person.class).equalTo("id", id).findFirst();
RealmList<Cat> realmCats = new RealmList<>();
for(Cat cat : realm.copyToRealmOrUpdate(cats)) {
realmCats.add(cat);
}
person.setCats(realmCats);
}
});

How to implement CFGNode with ANTLR4

I am struggling on how to implement the following in the best way:
public abstract class Expr extends CFGNode {
...
}
public abstract class Stmt extends CFGNode {
...
}
public class CFGBuilder extends BaseVisitor<CFGNode> {
public CFGNode visitWhileStmt(#NotNull Parser.WhileStmtContext ctx) {
Expr nExpr = visit(ctx.expr()); => not working as it returns CFGNode
Stmt nStmt = visit(ctx.stmt()); => not working as it returns CFGNode
return new WhileStmt(nExpr, nStmt);
}
...
Option 1: Always return CFGNode, which contains 2 fields. Depending on the case, we use one of the two fields or both fields.
public abstract class CFGNode {
public Expr expr;
public Stmt stmt;
}
...
public CFGNode visitWhileStmt(#NotNull Parser.WhileStmtContext ctx) {
CFGNode nExpr = visit(ctx.expr());
CFGNode nStmt = visit(ctx.stmt());
return new WhileStmt(nExpr.expr, nStmt.stmt);
}
Option 2: Use casting
public abstract class CFGNode {
// No real fields
}
...
public CFGNode visitWhileStmt(#NotNull Parser.WhileStmtContext ctx) {
Expr nExpr = (Expr)(visit(ctx.expr());
Stmt nStmt = (Stmt)(visit(ctx.stmt());
return new WhileStmt(nExpr, nStmt);
}
Option 3: Use different visitors for each type that can be returned.
public class CFGBuilder extends BaseVisitor<Expr> {
...
public class CFGBuilder extends BaseVisitor<Stmt> {
...
Not very sure how this would work.
Option 4: Maybe there is an even better solution??
I would choose Option 2.
Option 1 means that CFGNode contains one field for every Type of AST node. And accessing these fields will produce a NullPointerException (where Option 2 would produce a ClassCastException) so there is no advantage over Option 2.
Option 3 will afford that you have a visitor for each AST node. And each visitor will mostly implement only one method.
Yet Option 2 will be not sufficient if the result is dependent on the context (a function call could be a statement or an expression, dependent on the result being used or discarded). In this case you will need to pass the expected type down the parse tree. Terrence Parr explains solutions for that in 'The Definitive ANTLR4 Reference'
use the java call stack (would be Option 2)
maintain a separate stack (allows to pass information down the parse tree, by pushing it on the stack)
annotate the parse tree (maintain a map of parse tree nodes to attributes, see ParseTreeProperty<T>)

Java: How do I override a method of a class dynamically (class is eventually NOT in classpath)?

How do I call a method of a class dynamically + conditionally?
(Class is eventually not in classpath)
Let's say, I need the class NimbusLookAndFeel, but on some systems it's not available (i.e. OpenJDK-6).
So I must be able to:
Get to know it that class is available (at runtime),
If it's not the case, skip the whole thing.
How do I manage to override a method of a dynamically-loaded class
(thus creating an anonymous inner sub-class of it)?
Code example
public static void setNimbusUI(final IMethod<UIDefaults> method)
throws UnsupportedLookAndFeelException {
// NimbusLookAndFeel may be now available
UIManager.setLookAndFeel(new NimbusLookAndFeel() {
#Override
public UIDefaults getDefaults() {
UIDefaults ret = super.getDefaults();
method.perform(ret);
return ret;
}
});
}
EDIT:
Now I edited my code, as it was suggested, to intercept NoClassDefFoundError using try-catch. It fails. I don't know, if it's OpenJDK's fault. I get InvocationTargetException, caused by NoClassDefFoundError. Funny, that I can't catch InvocationTargetException: It's thrown anyway.
EDIT2::
Cause found: I was wrapping SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait(...) around the tested method, and that very invokeAndWait call throws NoClassDefFoundError when loading Nimbus fails.
EDIT3::
Can anyone please clarify where NoClassDefFoundError can occur at all? Because it seems that it's always the calling method, not the actual method which uses the non-existing class.
Get to know it that class is available (at runtime)
Put the usage in a try block ...
If it's not the case, skip the whole thing
... and leave the catch block empty (code smell?!).
How do I manage to override a method of a dynamically-loaded class
Just do it and make sure the compile-time dependency is satisfied. You are mixing things up here. Overriding takes place at compile time while class loading is a runtime thing.
For completeness, every class you write is dynamically loaded by the runtime environment when it is required.
So your code may look like:
public static void setNimbusUI(final IMethod<UIDefaults> method)
throws UnsupportedLookAndFeelException {
try {
// NimbusLookAndFeel may be now available
UIManager.setLookAndFeel(new NimbusLookAndFeel() {
#Override
public UIDefaults getDefaults() {
final UIDefaults defaults = super.getDefaults();
method.perform(defaults);
return defaults;
}
});
} catch (NoClassDefFoundError e) {
throw new UnsupportedLookAndFeelException(e);
}
}
Use BCEL to generate your dynamic subclass on the fly.
http://jakarta.apache.org/bcel/manual.html
The follow code should solve your problem. The Main class simulates your main class. Class A simulates the base class you want to extend (and you have no control of). Class B is the derived class of class A. Interface C simulates "function pointer" functionality that Java does not have. Let's see the code first...
The following is class A, the class you want to extend, but have no control of:
/* src/packageA/A.java */
package packageA;
public class A {
public A() {
}
public void doSomething(String s) {
System.out.println("This is from packageA.A: " + s);
}
}
The following is class B, the dummy derived class. Notice that, since it extends A, it must import packageA.A and class A must be available at the compile time of class B. A constructor with parameter C is essential, but implementing interface C is optional. If B implements C, you gain the convenience to call the method(s) on an instance of B directly (without reflection). In B.doSomething(), calling super.doSomething() is optional and depends on whether you want so, but calling c.doSomething() is essential (explained below):
/* src/packageB/B.java */
package packageB;
import packageA.A;
import packageC.C;
public class B extends A implements C {
private C c;
public B(C c) {
super();
this.c = c;
}
#Override
public void doSomething(String s) {
super.doSomething(s);
c.doSomething(s);
}
}
The following is the tricky interface C. Just put all the methods you want to override into this interface:
/* src/packageC/C.java */
package packageC;
public interface C {
public void doSomething(String s);
}
The following is the main class:
/* src/Main.java */
import packageC.C;
import java.lang.reflect.Constructor;
import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
doSomethingWithB("Hello");
}
public static void doSomethingWithB(final String t) {
Class classB = null;
try {
Class classA = Class.forName("packageA.A");
classB = Class.forName("packageB.B");
} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
System.out.println("packageA.A not found. Go without it!");
}
Constructor constructorB = null;
if (classB != null) {
try {
constructorB = classB.getConstructor(C.class);
} catch (NoSuchMethodException e) {
throw new RuntimeException(e);
}
}
C objectB = null;
if (constructorB != null) {
try {
objectB = (C) constructorB.newInstance(new C() {
public void doSomething(String s) {
System.out.println("This is from anonymous inner class: " + t);
}
});
} catch (ClassCastException e) {
throw new RuntimeException(e);
} catch (InstantiationException e) {
throw new RuntimeException(e);
} catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
throw new RuntimeException(e);
} catch (InvocationTargetException e) {
throw new RuntimeException(e);
}
}
if (objectB != null) {
objectB.doSomething("World");
}
}
}
Why does it compile and run?
You can see that in the Main class, only packageC.C is imported, and there is no reference to packageA.A or packageB.B. If there is any, the class loader will throw an exception on platforms that don't have packageA.A when it tries to load one of them.
How does it work?
In the first Class.forName(), it checks whether class A is available on the platform. If it is, ask the class loader to load class B, and store the resulting Class object in classB. Otherwise, ClassNotFoundException is thrown by Class.forName(), and the program goes without class A.
Then, if classB is not null, get the constructor of class B that accepts a single C object as parameter. Store the Constructor object in constructorB.
Then, if constructorB is not null, invoke constructorB.newInstance() to create a B object. Since there is a C object as parameter, you can create an anonymous class that implements interface C and pass the instance as the parameter value. This is just like what you do when you create an anonymous MouseListener.
(In fact, you don't have to separate the above try blocks. It is done so to make it clear what I am doing.)
If you made B implements C, you can cast the B object as a C reference at this time, and then you can call the overridden methods directly (without reflection).
What if class A does not have a "no parameter constructor"?
Just add the required parameters to class B, like public B(int extraParam, C c), and call super(extraParam) instead of super(). When creating the constructorB, also add the extra parameter, like classB.getConstructor(Integer.TYPE, C.class).
What happens to String s and String t?
t is used by the anonymous class directly. When objectB.doSomething("World"); is called, "World" is the s supplied to class B. Since super can't be used in the anonymous class (for obvious reasons), all the code that use super are placed in class B.
What if I want to refer to super multiple times?
Just write a template in B.doSomething() like this:
#Override
public void doSomething(String s) {
super.doSomething1(s);
c.doSomethingAfter1(s);
super.doSomething2(s);
c.doSomethingAfter2(s);
}
Of course, you have to modify interface C to include doSomethingAfter1() and doSomethingAfter2().
How to compile and run the code?
$ mkdir classes
$
$
$
$ javac -cp src -d classes src/Main.java
$ java -cp classes Main
packageA.A not found. Go without it!
$
$
$
$ javac -cp src -d classes src/packageB/B.java
$ java -cp classes Main
This is from packageA.A: World
This is from anonymous inner class: Hello
In the first run, the class packageB.B is not compiled (since Main.java does not have any reference to it). In the second run, the class is explicitly compiled, and thus you get the result you expected.
To help you fitting my solution to your problem, here is a link to the correct way to set the Nimbus Look and Feel:
Nimbus Look and Feel
You can use Class class to do that.
I.E.:
Class c = Class.forName("your.package.YourClass");
The sentence above will throw a ClassNotFoundException if not found on current classpath. If the exception is not thrown, then you can use newInstance() method in c to create objects of your.package.YourClass class. If you need to call a specific constructor, you can use getConstructors method to get one and use it to create a new instance.
Erm, can't you put the class you want to extend into the compile time class path, write your subclass as usual, and at runtime, explicitly trigger loading the subclass, and handle any exception thrown by the linker that indicates that the superclass is missing?

Setting a generic delegate to a class-level variable

I bumped into an additional question that I needed in regards to this: Using an IEnumerable<T> as a delegate return type
From the above solution, the following was suggested:
class Example
{
//the delegate declaration
public delegate IEnumerable<T> GetGridDataSource<T>();
//the generic method used to call the method
public void someMethod<T>(GetGridDataSource<T> method)
{
method();
}
//a method to pass to "someMethod<T>"
private IEnumerable<string> methodBeingCalled()
{
return Enumerable.Empty<string>();
}
//our main program look
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//create a new instance of our example
var myObject = new Example();
//invoke the method passing the method
myObject.someMethod<string>(myObject.methodBeingCalled);
}
}
Notice that in someMethod, the delegate "method()" is called. Is there anyway to set a class-level delegate that is called later on?
I.e:
class Example {
//the delegate declaration
public delegate IEnumerable<T> GetGridDataSource<T>();
//this fails because T is never provided
private GetGridDataSource<T> getDS;
//the generic method used to call the method
public void someMethod<T>(GetGridDataSource<T> method)
{
getDS = method;
}
public void anotherMethod() {
getDS();
}
}
Depending on what you are trying to achieve and where you have flexibility in your design, there are a number of options. I've tried to cover the ones that I feel most probably relate to what you want to do.
Multiple values of T in a single instance of a non-generic class
This is basically what you seem to want. However, because of the generic nature of the method call, you'll need a class level variable that can support any possible value of T, and you will need to know T when you store a value for the delegate.
Therefore, you can either use a Dictionary<Type, object> or you could use a nested type that encapsulates the class-level variable and the method, and then use a List<WrapperType<T>> instead.
You would then need to look up the appropriate delegate based on the required type.
class Example {
//the delegate declaration
public delegate IEnumerable<T> GetGridDataSource<T>();
//this works because T is provided
private Dictionary<Type, object> getDSMap;
//the generic method used to call the method
public void someMethod<T>(GetGridDataSource<T> method)
{
getDSMap[typeof(T)] = method;
}
//note, this call needs to know the type of T
public void anotherMethod<T>() {
object getDSObj = null;
if (this.getDSMap.TryGetValue(typeof(T), out getDSObj))
{
GetGridDataSource<T> getDS = getDSObj as GetGridDataSource<T>;
if (getDS != null)
getDS();
}
}
Single value of T in a single instance of a non-generic class
In this case, you could store the delegate instance in a non-typed delegate and then cast it to the appropriate type when you need it and you know the value of T. Of course, you'd need to know T when you first create the delegate, which negates the need for a generic method or delegate in the first place.
Multiple values of T in multiple instances of a generic class
Here you can make your parent class generic and supply T up front. This then makes the example you have work correctly as the type of T is known from the start.
class Example<T> {
//the delegate declaration
public delegate IEnumerable<T> GetGridDataSource<T>();
//this works because T is provided
private GetGridDataSource<T> getDS;
//the generic method used to call the method
public void someMethod<T>(GetGridDataSource<T> method)
{
getDS = method;
}
public void anotherMethod() {
if (getDS != null)
getDS();
}
}
You either need to make the type generic as well, or use plain Delegate and cast back to the right type when you need to invoke it. You can't just use T outside a generic context - the compiler will think you're trying to refer to a normal type called T.
To put it another way - if you're going to try to use the same type T in two different places, you're going to need to know what T is somewhere in the type... and if the type isn't generic, where is that information going to live?

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