Get instance name

Question

Hello
Is there any dynamic way to obtain an object's instance (variable) name?
For example:
Object myObject = new Object();
System.out.println( "The object's name is: " + someMethod() );
And the output would be:
The object's name is: myObject
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Even if it were possible...import  java.lang.reflect.*;import java.util.*;
public class VariableNames {
static Object obj = new Object();
static Object obj2 = obj;
static Object obj3 = obj2; //-- a single Object referred to by 3 variables
public static void main (String[] args) {
System.out.println(getTheNamesOfTheVariablesThatReferToThisObject(obj3));
//-- it has to print the list {obj, obj2, obj3}.
public static List getTheNamesOfTheVariablesThatReferToThisObject (Object obj) {
List varnames = new ArrayList();
Class clazz = VariableNames.class;
Field[] fields = clazz.getDeclaredFields();
for (int index=0, length=fields.length; index<length; index++) {
try {
if (fields[index].get(null) == obj) {
varnames.add(fields[index].getName());
} catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
// ignore
return varnames;
}Of course, if you tell us why you would want to do this, then there is probably a better solution (except for some types of constriant programming, where it can be justified) Pete