Assists in implementing {@link Object#toString()} methods using reflection.
This class uses reflection to determine the fields to append. Because these fields are usually private, the class uses {@link java.lang.reflect.AccessibleObject#setAccessible(java.lang.reflect.AccessibleObject[],boolean)}to change the visibility of the fields. This will fail under a security manager, unless the appropriate permissions are set up correctly.
A typical invocation for this method would look like:
public String toString() { return ReflectionToStringBuilder.toString(this); } You can also use the builder to debug 3rd party objects:
System.out.println("An object: " + ReflectionToStringBuilder.toString(anObject)); A subclass can control field output by overriding the methods:
- {@link #accept(java.lang.reflect.Field)}
- {@link #getValue(java.lang.reflect.Field)}
For example, this method does not include the password field in the returned String:
public String toString() { return (new ReflectionToStringBuilder(this) { protected boolean accept(Field f) { return super.accept(f) && !f.getName().equals("password"); } }).toString(); } The exact format of the toString is determined by the {@link ToStringStyle} passed into the constructor.
@author Gary Gregory
@author Stephen Colebourne
@author Pete Gieser
@since 2.0
@version $Id: ReflectionToStringBuilder.java,v 1.15 2003/12/02 19:11:58ggregory Exp $