What class calls the method?

Question

If there is a method in a class that could be called by any one of, lets say, one hundred other classes, in that method is there a way of printing out the name of the class that called it ?
So if class Xyz calls the method I would like to just do a println in the method saying that class Xyz called it ?

Answer 1

Yup... Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace();
package krc.utilz;
import java.io.PrintStream;
public class Tracer
  public static PrintStream out = null;
  public boolean enabled = true;
  public enum Format { LONG, SHORT }
  public Format format;
  public Tracer() {
    this(System.err, Tracer.Format.LONG);
  public Tracer(PrintStream out) {
    this(out, Tracer.Format.LONG);
  public Tracer(Format format) {
    this(System.err, format);
  public Tracer(PrintStream out, Format format) {
    this.out = out;
    this.format = format;
  public String toString() {
    return get(5);
  public String get() {
    return get(2);
  public String get(int i) {
    StackTraceElement[] st = Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace();
    if (i>=st.length) i = st.length-1; //don't go past top of stack
    StackTraceElement t = st;
String s = t.getFileName()+":"+t.getLineNumber()+":";
if (this.format == Format.LONG) {
s += t.getClassName()+"."+t.getMethodName();
return(s);
public void debug(String msg) {
if(!enabled)return;
out.println("DEBUG: "+msg);
public void print(String msg) {
if(!enabled)return;
if (out==null) return;
out.println(get(3)+" : "+msg);
public void print() {
if(!enabled)return;
if (out==null) return;
out.println(get(3));
public void print(int i) {
if(!enabled)return;
if (out==null) return;
out.println(get(i));
public static String getCurrentMethodName() {
StackTraceElement[] st = Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace();
return(st[2].getMethodName());