Identifying all class and Interfaces used in the class

[prasad Venkat]

how can i display all classes and interfaces used in a particular class

[Ulf Dittmer]

Have a look at the java.lang.Class class. It tells you just about everything you might want to know about a particular class. You can get a Class object for a particular class through "Class cls = Class.forName("packageName.className");"

[Peter Chase]

I don't see how java.lang.Class would help with the Original Poster's question. However, I am still using Java 1.4. Is there something new in later Java?

[Ådne Brunborg]

The Class object will give you information about superclass, interfaces, fields, and methods through a number of methods (getSuperclass, getInterfaces, getFields, getDeclaredFields, getDeclaredMethods, etc.) and you can find out even more by accessing the returned Class, Field, Method, etc. objects.

But it will not give you information about which classes are used inside methods - e.g. you cannot find out whether or not a String is used inside a method.

[Stan James]

You can read the class file itself. The format is well documented and it has the kinds of things you are looking for.

What's your end goal? You may find existing tools that already do the job. For example, there are several good class and package dependency analyzers.

[prasad Venkat]

Originally posted by Stan James:
You can read the class file itself. The format is well documented and it has the kinds of things you are looking for.

What's your end goal? You may find existing tools that already do the job. For example, there are several good class and package dependency analyzers.

[prasad Venkat]

That true , but here i need all classes used inside a class that may
in class/method. reading class format may not solve this problem

[Peter Chase]

Reading the class file (maybe via BCEL) will find all other classes "statically" used by the class. That is probably what you want.

It is nearly impossible to work out all the classes that might be used "dynamically", i.e. via reflection.

[Stan James]

reading class format may not solve this problem

Find the DOC and see. When you reference another class the compiler has to put that information in your class and there is a readable list of referenced classes in there. Try it with and without BCEL to see which you like. I've never tried BCEL; maybe I need an excuse to try it.

And that's right about reflection. Class.forName(arg1).newIntance() doesn't count as referencing another class. The compiler can't know what might be in that string. Neither can anybody else until it runs.

I'm not sure if you meant you have to know which methods reference which other classes. That will be harder fer sure.

[prasad Venkat]

i am searching for solution ,where i dont want to go with BCEL

[Peter Chase]

With respect, people keep telling you how to do this and you just keep saying you don't like it. Well, tough, what you are asking for is difficult to do. However many times you ask the question, no-one will tell you a dead-easy way to do it.

Your choices are: (a) interpret the class file yourself, (b) use a third-party library (e.g. BCEL) to interpret the class file, (c) redesign your application so you don't have this requirement in the first place.

[dinesh Venkatesan]

Hi Prasad,

Here is the solution for you. Tell me are you ok with this:

import java.io.*;
import java.lang.reflect.*;

public class ClassParser {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
System.out.println("Enter the Class to be parsed (e.g.:java.lang.Thread) ");
String classToBeParsed = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in)).readLine();
Class classToParse = Class.forName(classToBeParsed);
Class[] classes = classToParse.getClasses();
for(int i = 0 ; i < classes.length; i++ ) {
System.out.println(classes[i].getName());
}
}catch(Exception e){
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}

[prasad Venkat]

Dinesh .., you tried using getClasses(), this will help you to know only innerclasses but not classes/methods used in side classes