Can you find all classes in a package using reflection?

Question

Is it possible to find all classes or interfaces in a given package? (Quickly looking at e.g. Package, it would seem like no.)

Answer 1

The most robust mechanism for listing all classes in a given package is currently ClassGraph, because it handles the widest possible array of classpath specification mechanisms, including the new JPMS module system. (I am the author.)

List<String> classNames = new ArrayList<>();
try (ScanResult scanResult = new ClassGraph().acceptPackages("my.package")
        .enableClassInfo().scan()) {
    classNames.addAll(scanResult.getAllClasses().getNames());
}

Answer 2

I couldn't find a short working snipped for something so simple. So here it is, I made it myself after screwing around for a while:

    Reflections reflections =
        new Reflections(new ConfigurationBuilder()
                .filterInputsBy(new FilterBuilder().includePackage(packagePath))
                .setUrls(ClasspathHelper.forPackage(packagePath))
                .setScanners(new SubTypesScanner(false)));

    Set<String> typeList = reflections.getAllTypes(); 

Answer 3

You should probably take a look at the open source Reflections library. With it you can easily achieve what you want.

First, setup the reflections index (it's a bit messy since searching for all classes is disabled by default):

List<ClassLoader> classLoadersList = new LinkedList<ClassLoader>();
classLoadersList.add(ClasspathHelper.contextClassLoader());
classLoadersList.add(ClasspathHelper.staticClassLoader());

Reflections reflections = new Reflections(new ConfigurationBuilder()
    .setScanners(new SubTypesScanner(false /* don't exclude Object.class */), new ResourcesScanner())
    .setUrls(ClasspathHelper.forClassLoader(classLoadersList.toArray(new ClassLoader[0])))
    .filterInputsBy(new FilterBuilder().include(FilterBuilder.prefix("org.your.package"))));

Then you can query for all objects in a given package:

Set<Class<?>> classes = reflections.getSubTypesOf(Object.class);

Answer 4

Google Guava 14 includes a new class ClassPath with three methods to scan for top level classes:

• getTopLevelClasses()
• getTopLevelClasses(String packageName)
• getTopLevelClassesRecursive(String packageName)

See the ClassPath javadocs for more info.

Answer 5

I just wrote a util class, it include test methods, you can have a check ~

IteratePackageUtil.java:

package eric.j2se.reflect;

import java.util.Set;

import org.reflections.Reflections;
import org.reflections.scanners.ResourcesScanner;
import org.reflections.scanners.SubTypesScanner;
import org.reflections.util.ClasspathHelper;
import org.reflections.util.ConfigurationBuilder;
import org.reflections.util.FilterBuilder;

/**
 * an util to iterate class in a package,
 * 
 * @author eric
 * @date Dec 10, 2013 12:36:46 AM
 */
public class IteratePackageUtil {
    /**
     * <p>
     * Get set of all class in a specified package recursively. this only support lib
     * </p>
     * <p>
     * class of sub package will be included, inner class will be included,
     * </p>
     * <p>
     * could load class that use the same classloader of current class, can't load system packages,
     * </p>
     * 
     * @param pkg
     *            path of a package
     * @return
     */
    public static Set<Class<? extends Object>> getClazzSet(String pkg) {
        // prepare reflection, include direct subclass of Object.class
        Reflections reflections = new Reflections(new ConfigurationBuilder().setScanners(new SubTypesScanner(false), new ResourcesScanner())
                .setUrls(ClasspathHelper.forClassLoader(ClasspathHelper.classLoaders(new ClassLoader[0])))
                .filterInputsBy(new FilterBuilder().includePackage(pkg)));

        return reflections.getSubTypesOf(Object.class);
    }

    public static void test() {
        String pkg = "org.apache.tomcat.util";

        Set<Class<? extends Object>> clazzSet = getClazzSet(pkg);
        for (Class<? extends Object> clazz : clazzSet) {
            System.out.println(clazz.getName());
        }
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        test();
    }
}

Answer 6

Based on @Staale's answer, and in an attempt not to rely on third party libraries, I would implement the File System approach by inspecting first package physical location with:

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileFilter;
import java.util.ArrayList;
...
Class<?>[] foundClasses = new Class<?>[0];
final ArrayList<Class<?>> foundClassesDyn = new ArrayList<Class<?>>();

new java.io.File(
    klass.getResource(
        "/" + curPackage.replace( "." , "/")
    ).getFile()
).listFiles(
    new java.io.FileFilter() {
        public boolean accept(java.io.File file) {
            final String classExtension = ".class";

            if ( file.isFile()
                && file.getName().endsWith(classExtension)
                // avoid inner classes
                && ! file.getName().contains("$") )
            {
                try {
                    String className = file.getName();
                    className = className.substring(0, className.length() - classExtension.length());
                    foundClassesDyn.add( Class.forName( curPackage + "." + className ) );
                } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace(System.out);
                }
            }

            return false;
        }
    }
);

foundClasses = foundClassesDyn.toArray(foundClasses);