Method.getReturnType() and byte[]

[Mitch Christensen]

Using Java reflection, Method.getReturnType() returns a Class. One of the methods I'm looking for (during reflection) returns a byte[]. What is the best way to test for this?

I discovered that testing for Method.getReturnType().getName().equals("[B") works, but is the best way to check the return type?

Thanks in advance.
-Mitch

[Jesper de Jong]

Try comparing it with the Class object that represents byte[], like this:

Method m = ...;  // wherever you get it from
 
if (m.getReturnType().equals(byte[].class)) {
    System.out.println("This method returns a byte[]");
}

[Tony Morris]

Originally posted by Jesper Young:
Try comparing it with the Class object that represents byte[], like this:

Method m = ...;  // wherever you get it from
 
if (m.getReturnType().equals(byte[].class)) {
    System.out.println("This method returns a byte[]");
}

Prefer the reference equality comparison: m.getReturnType() == byte[].class

[Lyn Yang]

I have a similar problem but harder. I use java reflection to get back a Class. I need to check whether it is subclass of Collection, therefore I can't use equal to do the checking. I tried the isInstance(), but it doesn't seem to work.

Any advices?

Thanks!

[Mitch Christensen]

Did you try using Class.isAssignableFrom()?

see (http://download.java.net/jdk6/docs/api/java/lang/Class.html#isAssignableFrom(java.lang.Class))

[Lyn Yang]

Originally posted by Mitch Christensen:
Did you try using Class.isAssignableFrom()?

see (http://download.java.net/jdk6/docs/api/java/lang/Class.html#isAssignableFrom(java.lang.Class))

Thanks, it works!