Clojure: How to find out the arity of function at runtime?

The arity of a function is stored in the metadata of the var.

(:arglists (meta #'str))
;([] [x] [x & ys])

This requires that the function was either defined using defn, or the :arglists metadata supplied explicitly.

Sneaky reflection:

(defn arg-count [f]
  (let [m (first (.getDeclaredMethods (class f)))
        p (.getParameterTypes m)]
    (alength p)))

Or :

(defn arg-count [f]
  {:pre [(instance? clojure.lang.AFunction f)]}
  (-> f class .getDeclaredMethods first .getParameterTypes alength))

Building on @whocaresanyway's solution:

(defn provided
  [cond fun x]
  (if cond
    (fun x)
    x))

(defn append
  [xs x]
  (conj (vec xs) x))

(defn arity-of-method
  [method]
  (->> method .getParameterTypes alength))

(defn arities
  [fun]
  (let [all-declared-methods (.getDeclaredMethods (class fun))
        methods-named (fn [name]
                        (filter #(= (.getName %) name) all-declared-methods))
        methods-named-invoke (methods-named "invoke")
        methods-named-do-invoke (methods-named "doInvoke")
        is-rest-fn (seq methods-named-do-invoke)]
    (->> methods-named-invoke
         (map arity-of-method)
         sort
         (provided is-rest-fn
                   (fn [v] (append v :rest))))))

My heart bled (covered all the cases).

(defn arity
  "Returns the maximum arity of:
    - anonymous functions like `#()` and `(fn [])`.
    - defined functions like `map` or `+`.
    - macros, by passing a var like `#'->`.

  Returns `:variadic` if the function/macro is variadic."
  [f]
  (let [func (if (var? f) @f f)
        methods (->> func class .getDeclaredMethods
                     (map #(vector (.getName %)
                                   (count (.getParameterTypes %)))))
        var-args? (some #(-> % first #{"getRequiredArity"})
                        methods)]
    (if var-args?
      :variadic
      (let [max-arity (->> methods
                           (filter (comp #{"invoke"} first))
                           (sort-by second)
                           last
                           second)]
        (if (and (var? f) (-> f meta :macro))
          (- max-arity 2) ;; substract implicit &form and &env arguments
          max-arity)))))

(use 'clojure.test)

(defmacro m ([a]) ([a b]))
(defmacro mx [])

(deftest test-arity
  (testing "with an anonymous #(… %1) function"
    (is (= 1           (arity #(+ % 32))))
    (is (= 1           (arity #(+ %1 32))))
    (is (= 2           (arity #(+ %1 %2))))
    (is (= 13          (arity #(+ %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 %10 %11 %12 %13))))
    (is (= :variadic   (arity #(apply + %&))))
    (is (= :variadic   (arity #(apply + % %&)))))
  (testing "with an anonymous (fn [] …) function"
    (testing "single body"
      (is (= 0         (arity (fn []))))
      (is (= 1         (arity (fn [a]))))
      (is (= 2         (arity (fn [a b]))))
      (is (= 20        (arity (fn [a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t]))))
      (is (= :variadic (arity (fn [a b & more])))))
    (testing "multiple bodies"
      (is (= 0         (arity (fn ([])))))
      (is (= 1         (arity (fn ([a])))))
      (is (= 2         (arity (fn ([a]) ([a b])))))
      (is (= :variadic (arity (fn ([a]) ([a b & c])))))))
  (testing "with a defined function"
    (is (= :variadic   (arity map)))
    (is (= :variadic   (arity +)))
    (is (= 1           (arity inc))))
  (testing "with a var to a macro"
    (is (= :variadic   (arity #'->)))
    (is (= 2           (arity #'m)))
    (is (= 0           (arity #'mx)))))

(run-tests)

Actually it also works on macros:

(defn arg-count [f]
  (let [m (first (.getDeclaredMethods (class f)))
        p (.getParameterTypes m)]
    (alength p)))

(defmacro my-macro [])

(arg-count @#'my-macro)
; 2

Why 2? Because every macro has two implicit arguments &form and &env respectively.