Disabling compile-time dependency checking when compiling Java classes

Question

Consider the following two Java classes:

a.) class Test { void foo(Object foobar) { } }

b.) class Test { void foo(pkg.not.in.classpath.FooBar foobar) { } }
         


        

Answer 1

I can't see how you could allow this without breaking java type checking. How would you use your referenced object in your method? To extend on your example,

class test {
   void foo (pkg.not.in.classpath.FooBar foobar) { 
       foobar.foobarMethod(); //what does the compiler do here?
  } 
}

If you're in some situation where you've got to compile (and call a method ) on something that works on a library you don't have access to the closest you can come is to get the method via reflection, something like (method calls from memory, may be inaccurate)

 void foo(Object suspectedFoobar)
     {
       try{
        Method m = suspectedFoobar.getClass().getMethod("foobarMethod");
        m.invoke(suspectedFoobar);
       }
       ...
     }

I can't really see the point of doing this, though. Can you provide more information on the problem you're trying to solve?