How to get the name of the calling class in Java?

Question

I would like some help on this matter,

Example:

public class A {

    private void foo() {

          //Who Invoked me

    }

}

public class B extends A { }

public class C extends A { }

public class D {

     C.foo();

}

This is basically the scenario. My question is how can method foo() know who is calling it?

EDIT: Basically I am trying to do a database Layer, and in Class A I will create a method that will generate SQL statements. Such statements are dynamically generated by getting the values of all the public properties of the calling class.

Answer 1

Easiest way is the following:

String className = new Exception().getStackTrace()[1].getClassName();

But in real there should be no need for this, unless for some logging purposes, because this is a fairly expensive task. What is it, the problem for which you think that this is the solution? We may come up with -much- better suggestions.

Edit: you commented as follows:

basically i'am trying to do a database Layer, and in Class A i will create a method that will generate sql statements, such statements are dynamically generated by getting the values of all the public properties of the calling class.

I then highly recommend to look for an existing ORM library, such as Hibernate, iBatis or any JPA implementation to your taste.

Answer 2

From a stack trace: http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/javatips/jw-javatip124.html

Answer 3

foo() is private, so the caller will always be in class A.

Answer 4

Perhaps for your use case it would make sense to pass the class of the caller into the method, like:

public class A { public void foo(Class<?> c) { ... } }

And call it something like this:

public class B { new A().foo(getClass() /* or: B.class */ ); }

Answer 5

In .Net we can do it with class. It gives you direct access to reflection info without any parsing. Is there anything similar in Java?