In Java you can invoke any method by its string name dynamically using reflection API. java.lang.reflect API provides powerful reflection mechanism which can load classes by its name even if classes are not available at compile time, Can get all methods including private and public from class and allow you to invoke any method dynamically using reflection. For those who are new in Java this sound pretty strange that at runtime you provide a method name using string and Java can run that method without any code for calling the method during compilation, but Reflection is such a powerful mechanism it allows to do lot of stuff dynamically and if you been using IDE like Netbeans or Eclipse , J2EE framework like Spring and Struts, these all used reflection to provide powerful configuration module and several other useful feature like code assist etc. Reflection is very comprehensive topic and there is a lot to learn but we will start with simple Java program example to invoke a method using reflection in by providing name of method as String value.
This Java article is continuation of my post on covering basic concepts like static and dynamic binding in Java, when to use Interface in Java and why use PreparedStaement in Java. If you are new here or haven’t read them already then you may find them useful.
