Retrieving the inherited attribute names/values using Java Reflection

Solution 1:

no, you need to write it yourself. It is a simple recursive method called on Class.getSuperClass():

public static List<Field> getAllFields(List<Field> fields, Class<?> type) {
    fields.addAll(Arrays.asList(type.getDeclaredFields()));

    if (type.getSuperclass() != null) {
        getAllFields(fields, type.getSuperclass());
    }

    return fields;
}

@Test
public void getLinkedListFields() {
    System.out.println(getAllFields(new LinkedList<Field>(), LinkedList.class));
}

Solution 2:

    public static List<Field> getAllFields(Class<?> type) {
        List<Field> fields = new ArrayList<Field>();
        for (Class<?> c = type; c != null; c = c.getSuperclass()) {
            fields.addAll(Arrays.asList(c.getDeclaredFields()));
        }
        return fields;
    }

Solution 3:

If instead you wanted to rely upon a library to accomplish this, Apache Commons Lang version 3.2+ provides FieldUtils.getAllFieldsList:

import java.lang.reflect.Field;
import java.util.AbstractCollection;
import java.util.AbstractList;
import java.util.AbstractSequentialList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.List;

import org.apache.commons.lang3.reflect.FieldUtils;
import org.junit.Assert;
import org.junit.Test;

public class FieldUtilsTest {

    @Test
    public void testGetAllFieldsList() {

        // Get all fields in this class and all of its parents
        final List<Field> allFields = FieldUtils.getAllFieldsList(LinkedList.class);

        // Get the fields form each individual class in the type's hierarchy
        final List<Field> allFieldsClass = Arrays.asList(LinkedList.class.getFields());
        final List<Field> allFieldsParent = Arrays.asList(AbstractSequentialList.class.getFields());
        final List<Field> allFieldsParentsParent = Arrays.asList(AbstractList.class.getFields());
        final List<Field> allFieldsParentsParentsParent = Arrays.asList(AbstractCollection.class.getFields());

        // Test that `getAllFieldsList` did truly get all of the fields of the the class and all its parents 
        Assert.assertTrue(allFields.containsAll(allFieldsClass));
        Assert.assertTrue(allFields.containsAll(allFieldsParent));
        Assert.assertTrue(allFields.containsAll(allFieldsParentsParent));
        Assert.assertTrue(allFields.containsAll(allFieldsParentsParentsParent));
    }
}

Solution 4:

You need to call:

Class.getSuperclass().getDeclaredFields()

Recursing up the inheritance hierarchy as necessary.

Solution 5:

Use Reflections library:

public Set<Field> getAllFields(Class<?> aClass) {
    return org.reflections.ReflectionUtils.getAllFields(aClass);
}