Reflection and the field.set method

Question

OK, I've made 2 classes, a ClearParent and ClearChild (which extends ClearParent). I'd like to have a "clear" method on the parent which dynamically sets all the fields to null. I'd like to be able to have any child that inherits from the parent be able to call clear and dynamically have all it's fields set to null.
Part of the restriction that I'm facing is that the fields are Objects (Integer) but the getter and setter methods take and return types (int). So I can't just loop through the Methods and call the setters with null.
I'd like to be able to loop through the fields and call set for all the fields with the parent class.
I'm inserting the code that I have for the parent and child classes at the end. Basically, the problem that I'm seeing is that if I do a
this.getClass().getName()
from the parent (when clear is called from the child) it shows me the child name ("ClearChild"). But when I try to do the
field.set(this, null)
it tells me this:
Class ClearParent can not access a member of class
ClearChild with modifiers "private"
How come when I get the name it tells me that it's the child but when I pass "this" to the set method, it says that it's the parent?
Any one know what's going on here? Is there anyway that I can have the parent set all the fields to null?
Thanks in advance.
Here's the code:
ClearParent
import java.lang.reflect.*;
public class ClearParent {
    public boolean clear() {
        try {
            System.out.println(this.getClass().getName());
            Field[] fields = this.getClass().getDeclaredFields();
            Field   field;
            for (int i = 0; i < fields.length; i++) {
                field = fields;
field.set(this, null);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
return true;
ClearChild
public class ClearChild extends ClearParent {
private Float f;
public ClearChild() {
super();
public float getF() {
if (f == null) {
return 0;
return f.floatValue();
public void setF(float f) {
this.f = new Float(f);
public static void main (String[] args) throws Exception {
ClearChild cc = new ClearChild();
cc.setF(23);
cc.clear();
System.out.println("cc.getF: " + cc.getF());

Answer 1

It is an instance of ClearChild that is being used so
that class name is ClearChild. However, the method
exists in the parent class and thus cannot act upon a
private field of another class (even if it happens to
be a subclass).Ahh...makes sense.
Why don't you just override clear in the child?We were trying to avoid this because we run into problems in the past of people adding fields to the class, but not adding to the clear, and things not being cleared properly.
I talked it over with the guys here and they have no problem making the fields protected instead of private. If it's protected, then the parent has access to it and my sample code works.
Thanks for your help KPSeal!
Jes