Unexpected Class.getMethod behaviour
java, reflection
Solution
As per your edit, you can make use of `Class#isAssignableFrom()`. Here's a basic kickoff example (leaving obvious (runtime) exception handling aside):
package com.stackoverflow.q2169497;
import java.io.Serializable;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;
public class Test {
public String doSomething(Serializable serializable) {
return serializable.toString();
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
Test test = new Test();
for (Method method : test.getClass().getMethods()) {
if ("doSomething".equals(method.getName())) {
if (method.getParameterTypes()[0].isAssignableFrom(String.class)) {
System.out.println(method.invoke(test, "foo"));
}
}
}
}
}
This should print `foo` to stdout.
Problem
A while ago I had a similar question when using Class.getMethod and autoboxing, and it made sense to implement this in your own lookup algorithm. But what really confused me a little was that the following is not working either: ``` public class TestClass { public String doSomething(Serializable s) { return s.toString(); } public static void main(String[] args) throws SecurityException, NoSuchMethodException { TestClass tc = new TestClass(); Method m = tc.getClass().getMethod("doSomething", String.class); } } ``` String.class implements the Serializable interface and I really expected it to be included in the lookup method. Do I have to consider this in my own lookup algorithms as well? EDIT: I did read the Javadoc, so let me emphasise the second part of the question: And if so do you have suggestions on how to do that fast (I already had to add some custom matching and converting algorithms and I don't want it to get too slow)?