Question

In Java, one can write code such as the following to interrogate the stack:

StackTraceElement[] stack = Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace();
for (StackTraceElement frame : stack) {
    System.out.println(frame.getClassName() + "." + frame.getMethodName());
}

Is it possible to get a reflective view of the stack, where rather than just getting the names of the classes and methods, I instead get Class and Method instances? If two methods in a class share a name (with different parameters), can I distinguish between them on the stack?

Answer 1

The Class bit is easy. Use Class.forName(String):

StackTraceElement[] stack = Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace();
for (StackTraceElement frame : stack) {
    String fqcn = frame.getClassName();
    Class<?> clazz = Class.forName(fqcn);
}

If two methods in a class share a name (with different parameters), can I distinguish between them on the stack?

I don’t think so, since the method name returned by StackTraceElement#getMethodName() does not contain parameter number & type information, which is what you’d need to distinguish between methods with the same name.