Class.getMethod using a superclass

Question

I'm trying to use Class.getMethod to retrieve a particular method, but it keeps returning NoSuchMethodException s when i use code similar to this example.
try {
     Class<?> c = Class.forName("javax.swing.JFrame");
     Method m = c.getMethod("add",javax.swing.JButton.class);
catch(Exception e) {
     e.printStackTrace();
}I think it is unable to find the method because the add method takes a java.awt.Component, but is there any way around casting it to that? The method names and arguments are only provided at runtime, and the only solution I see is successive calls to Class.getSuperClass and testing the parameter over and over again to try to find the right method. This doesn't seem like a good solution, or even efficient, when considering the combinations you would have to attempt when given multiple parameters.
Is there a better way to solve this than that?

Answer 1

Hi,
I do not see a solution like the one you are looking for (automatic matching). But what may be easier than your proposed solution of successive calls to getMethod() with different combinations of parameter types, and each call throwing NoSuchMethodExceptions, may be something like:
- call getMethods()
- iterate over all methods found
- first matching names
- for each matching name, check parameter type (of course not equality, but whether your type would fit the type expected by the method)
- repeat for each parameter of current match
- repeat until matching method is found
Bye.