Unmasking the Magic of Java Reflection: Why It Matters (and When to Avoid It)

for free reading -> https://erkanyasun.medium.com/unmasking-the-magic-of-java-reflection-why-it-matters-and-when-to-avoid-it-93aef339427f?sk=e3894fa2a5fbae4977b3417a3671ef28

In the Java universe, reflection is sometimes viewed as a shadowy figure — mysterious and powerful, but often misunderstood. Yet it’s behind some of our favorite libraries and frameworks (think Spring, Hibernate, Jackson), and it can be a handy tool in your own code if you know what you’re doing. Let’s explore the ins and outs of reflection, along with practical examples and caveats.

What Is Reflection, Really?

Reflection is Java’s ability to inspect and manipulate classes, methods, and fields at runtime — even if you don’t know their exact types at compile time. Essentially, it’s your backstage pass to the JVM, letting you peek behind the curtain and see how objects are constructed and what methods they have.

Class<?> clazz = SomeClass.class;
Method[] methods = clazz.getDeclaredMethods();
for (Method method : methods) {
    System.out.println("Found method: " + method.getName());
}

This snippet can discover all declared methods in a class — without referencing them explicitly in your code.

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