Question

I need to invoke the setter methods of a class using reflection, and the code is as below:

try {             
   Method method = myObj.getClass().getMethod("set" + fieldName, new Class[] { value.getClass() });               
   method.invoke(myObj, value);
     } catch (Exception ex) {
         ex.printStackTrace();
     }

The value is an ArrayList and the setter method is as below:

public void setNames(List<String> names){
    this.names = names;
}

A java.lang.NoSuchMethodException is thrown when running this code, but when the setter method parameter type is changed to ArrayList from List it executes fine. Is there a way to keep the setter method parameter in super type and still use reflection without manually giving the type of the parameter when getting the method from the class?

Answer 1

Contrary to other answers, there is a really simple solution. See java.beans.Statement. It gives you a way to execute arbitrary reflective code without having to worry about actual vs formal types (and a few other things).