How do I invoke a Java method when given the method name as a string?

Question

If I have two variables:

Object obj;
String methodName = \"getName\";

Without knowing the class of obj, how can I call the met

Answer 1

This sounds like something that is doable with the Java Reflection package.

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/ALT/Reflection/index.html

Particularly under Invoking Methods by Name:

import java.lang.reflect.*;

public class method2 {
  public int add(int a, int b)
  {
     return a + b;
  }

  public static void main(String args[])
  {
     try {
       Class cls = Class.forName("method2");
       Class partypes[] = new Class[2];
        partypes[0] = Integer.TYPE;
        partypes[1] = Integer.TYPE;
        Method meth = cls.getMethod(
          "add", partypes);
        method2 methobj = new method2();
        Object arglist[] = new Object[2];
        arglist[0] = new Integer(37);
        arglist[1] = new Integer(47);
        Object retobj 
          = meth.invoke(methobj, arglist);
        Integer retval = (Integer)retobj;
        System.out.println(retval.intValue());
     }
     catch (Throwable e) {
        System.err.println(e);
     }
  }
}