Howto get the java compiler to insert a variable name into a string
compiler-construction, java
Solution
No, Java cannot do this until it starts supporting closures which make fields (and methods) first class citizens of the programming language.
See http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddhp95vd_6hg3qhc for an overview on one of the proposals, in which you could do what you want using `#field` syntax.
Problem
I often find myself writing code like this: ``` throwExceptionWhenEmpty(fileType, "fileType"); throwExceptionWhenEmpty(channel, "channel"); throwExceptionWhenEmpty(url, "url"); ``` The `throwExceptionWhenEmpty` method does something like this: ``` private void throwExceptionWhenEmpty(final String var, final String varName) { if (var == null || var.isEmpty()) { throw new RuntimeException("Parameter " + varName + " may not be null or empty."); } } ``` I'd like to avoid this obvious redundancy passing the variable name as string. Is there a way the java compiler can insert the variable name in the string for me? I'd be happy if I could write something like this: ``` throwExceptionWhenEmpty(fileType, nameOf(fileType)); ```