The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts

Spring 2002

Lecture 25: Run-Time Type

Identification and Introspection

Felix Hernandez-Campos
March 22

COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts

Felix Hernandez-Campos
1
 RTTI and Introspection

• Run-time type identification make it possible to

determine the type of an object
– E.g. given a pointer to a base class, determine the derived
class of the pointed object
– The type (class) must be known at compile time
• Introspection makes general class information
available at run-time
– The type (class) does not have to be known at compile
time
– This is very useful in component architectures and visual
programming
– E.g. list the attributes of an object

COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts

Felix Hernandez-Campos
2
 RTTI and Introspection

• RTTI and introspection are powerful programming

language features
– They enables some powerful design techniques
– We will discuss them in the context of Java
• This discussion will follow Chapter 11 in Thinking in
Java by Bruce Eckel
– http://www.codeguru.com/java/tij/tij0119.shtml
– By the way, this is an excellent book freely available on-
line

COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts

Felix Hernandez-Campos
3
 The need for RTTI
Polymorphism Example
//: Shapes.java class Triangle implements Shape {
package c11; public void draw() {
import java.util.*; System.out.println("Triangle.draw()");
interface Shape { }
void draw(); }
} public class Shapes {
class Circle implements Shape { public static void main(String[] args) {
public void draw() { Vector s = new Vector();
System.out.println("Circle.draw()"); s.addElement(new Circle()); Poly-
} s.addElement(new Square());morphism
} Upcasting (Type Safe in Java) s.addElement(new Triangle());
class Square implements Shape { Enumeration e = s.elements();
public void draw() { while(e.hasMoreElements())
System.out.println("Square.draw()"); ((Shape)e.nextElement()).draw();
} }
} }

What if you want to known the exact type at run-time?

COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts
Felix Hernandez-Campos
4
 The Class Object

• Type information is available at run-time in Java

• There is a Class object for each class in the program
– It stores class information
• Class objects are loaded in memory the first time
they are needed
– A Java program is not completely loaded before it begin!
• The class Class provides a number of useful
methods for RTTI
– http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/api/java/lang/Class.html

COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts

Felix Hernandez-Campos
5
 Example
class Candy { public class SweetShop {
static { public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Loading Candy"); System.out.println("inside main");
new Candy();
}
System.out.println("After creating
} Candy");
class Gum { try {
static { Class.forName("Gum");
System.out.println("Loading Gum"); } catch(ClassNotFoundException e) {
} e.printStackTrace();
}
Executed at Load Time }
class Cookie { System.out.println( "After
Class.forName(\"Gum\")");
static {
new Cookie();
System.out.println("Loading
Cookie"); System.out.println("After creating
Cookie");
}
}
}
}
Returns a reference to class Gum
COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts
Felix Hernandez-Campos
6
 Example

• Output
– JVM-1

inside main
Loading Candy
After creating Candy
Loading Gum
After Class.forName("Gum")
Loading Cookie
After creating Cookie

COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts

Felix Hernandez-Campos
7
 Example

• Output
– JVM-2

Loading Candy
Loading Cookie
inside main
After creating Candy
Loading Gum
After Class.forName("Gum")
After creating Cookie

COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts

Felix Hernandez-Campos
8
 The Class Object

• Class literals also provide a reference to the Class

object
– E.g. Gum.class
• Each object of a primitive wrapper class has a
standard field called TYPE that also provides a
reference to the Class object
– http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/api/java/lang/Boolean.ht
ml

COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts

Felix Hernandez-Campos
9
 RTTI

• The type of a object can be determined using the

instanceof keyword
– See PetCount.java
– It can be rewritten using Class literal, see PetCount2.java
– Notice that an object of a derived class is an instance of
the its base classes (i.e. any predecessor in the inheritance
hierarchy)
• RTTI is very useful when reusing classes without
extending them
• Class.isInstance() also implements the
instanceof functionality
COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts
Felix Hernandez-Campos
10
 Introspection

• Introspection makes general class information

available at run-time
– The type (class) does not have to be known at compile
time
– E.g. list the attributes of an object
• This is very useful in
– Rapid Application Development (RAD)
» Visual approach to GUI development
» Requires information about component at run-time
– Remote Method Invocation (RMI)
» Distributed objects

COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts

Felix Hernandez-Campos
11
 Reflection

• Java supports introspection through its reflection

library
– http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/api/java/lang/reflect/
package-summary.html
– See classes Field (attributes), Method and Constructor
• Examples:
– ShowMethods.java

COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts

Felix Hernandez-Campos
12
 Python

• The Inspect module provides introspections

mechanism
– http://www.python.org/doc/current/lib/module-
inspect.html
– See:
» getmembers(object[, predicate])
» getsource(object)
» getclasstree(classes[, unique])
» getmro(cls)

COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts

Felix Hernandez-Campos
13
 Java Beans

• Tutorial
– http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/javabeans/
index.html
• The JavaBeans API makes it possible to write
component software in the Java programming
language.
• Components are self-contained, reusable software
units that can be visually composed into composite
components, applets, applications, and servlets using
visual application builder tools.
• JavaBean components are known as Beans.
COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts
Felix Hernandez-Campos
14
 Demonstration

• BeanBox application
The BeanBox is a simple tool you can use to test your Beans,
and to learn how to visually manipulate their properties
and events. The BeanBox is not a builder tool. You'll use
the BeanBox to learn about Beans.

COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts

Felix Hernandez-Campos
15
COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts
Felix Hernandez-Campos
16
 Reading Assignment

• Bruce Eckel Thinking in Java

– Chapter 11, RTTI
» http://www.codeguru.com/java/tij/tij0119.shtml

• Java Beans
– Tutorial
» http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/javabeans/index.html
– Play with the BeanBox

COMP 144 Programming Language Concepts

Felix Hernandez-Campos
17