Type introspection
Template:Multiple issues In computing, type introspection is the ability of a program to examine the type or properties of an object at runtime. Some programming languages possess this capability.
Introspection should not be confused with reflection, which goes a step further and is the ability for a program to manipulate the metadata, properties, and functions of an object at runtime. Some programming languages also possess that capability (e.g., Java, Python, Julia, and Go).
ExamplesEdit
Objective-CEdit
In Objective-C, for example, both the generic Object and NSObject (in Cocoa/OpenStep) provide the method <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">isMemberOfClass:</syntaxhighlight> which returns true if the argument to the method is an instance of the specified class. The method <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">isKindOfClass:</syntaxhighlight> analogously returns true if the argument inherits from the specified class.
For example, say we have an <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">Apple</syntaxhighlight> and an <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">Orange</syntaxhighlight> class inheriting from <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">Fruit</syntaxhighlight>.
Now, in the <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">eat</syntaxhighlight> method we can write <syntaxhighlight lang="objc"> - (void)eat:(id)sth {
if ([sth isKindOfClass:[Fruit class]]) {
// we're actually eating a Fruit, so continue
if ([sth isMemberOfClass:[Apple class]]) {
eatApple(sth);
} else if ([sth isMemberOfClass:[Orange class]]) {
eatOrange(sth);
} else {
error();
}
} else {
error();
}
} </syntaxhighlight>
Now, when <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">eat</syntaxhighlight> is called with a generic object (an <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">id</syntaxhighlight>), the function will behave correctly depending on the type of the generic object.
C++Edit
C++ supports type introspection via the run-time type information (RTTI) typeid and dynamic cast keywords. The <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">dynamic_cast</syntaxhighlight> expression can be used to determine whether a particular object is of a particular derived class. For instance: <syntaxhighlight lang="cpp"> Person* p = dynamic_cast<Person *>(obj); if (p != nullptr) {
p->walk();
} </syntaxhighlight> The <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">typeid</syntaxhighlight> operator retrieves a <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">std::type_info</syntaxhighlight> object describing the most derived type of an object: <syntaxhighlight lang="cpp"> if (typeid(Person) == typeid(*obj)) {
serialize_person( obj );
} </syntaxhighlight>
Object PascalEdit
Type introspection has been a part of Object Pascal since the original release of Delphi, which uses RTTI heavily for visual form design. In Object Pascal, all classes descend from the base TObject class, which implements basic RTTI functionality. Every class's name can be referenced in code for RTTI purposes; the class name identifier is implemented as a pointer to the class's metadata, which can be declared and used as a variable of type TClass. The language includes an is operator, to determine if an object is or descends from a given class, an as operator, providing a type-checked typecast, and several TObject methods. Deeper introspection (enumerating fields and methods) is traditionally only supported for objects declared in the $M+ (a pragma) state, typically TPersistent, and only for symbols defined in the published section. Delphi 2010 increased this to nearly all symbols. <syntaxhighlight lang="delphi"> procedure Form1.MyButtonOnClick(Sender: TObject); var
aButton: TButton; SenderClass: TClass;
begin
SenderClass := Sender.ClassType; //returns Sender's class pointer
if sender is TButton then
begin
aButton := sender as TButton;
EditBox.Text := aButton.Caption; //Property that the button has but generic objects don't
end
else begin
EditBox.Text := Sender.ClassName; //returns the name of Sender's class as a string
end;
end; </syntaxhighlight>
JavaEdit
The simplest example of type introspection in Java is the <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">instanceof</syntaxhighlight><ref>Java Language Specification: instanceof</ref> operator. The <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">instanceof</syntaxhighlight> operator determines whether a particular object belongs to a particular class (or a subclass of that class, or a class that implements that interface). For instance: <syntaxhighlight lang="java"> if (obj instanceof Person p) {
p.walk();
} </syntaxhighlight>
The <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">java.lang.Class</syntaxhighlight><ref>Java API: java.lang.Class</ref> class is the basis of more advanced introspection.
For instance, if it is desirable to determine the actual class of an object (rather than whether it is a member of a particular class), <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">Object.getClass()</syntaxhighlight> and <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">Class.getName()</syntaxhighlight> can be used:
<syntaxhighlight lang="java"> System.out.println(obj.getClass().getName()); </syntaxhighlight>
PHPEdit
In PHP introspection can be done using <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">instanceof</syntaxhighlight> operator. For instance: <syntaxhighlight lang="php"> if ($obj instanceof Person) {
// Do whatever you want
} </syntaxhighlight>
PerlEdit
Introspection can be achieved using the <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">ref</syntaxhighlight> and <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">isa</syntaxhighlight> functions in Perl.
We can introspect the following classes and their corresponding instances: <syntaxhighlight lang="perl"> package Animal; sub new {
my $class = shift;
return bless {}, $class;
}
package Dog; use base 'Animal';
package main; my $animal = Animal->new(); my $dog = Dog->new(); </syntaxhighlight> using: <syntaxhighlight lang="perl"> print "This is an Animal.\n" if ref $animal eq 'Animal'; print "Dog is an Animal.\n" if $dog->isa('Animal'); </syntaxhighlight>
Meta-Object ProtocolEdit
Much more powerful introspection in Perl can be achieved using the Moose object system<ref>Moose meta API documentation</ref> and the <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">Class::MOP</syntaxhighlight> meta-object protocol;<ref>Class::MOP - a meta-object protocol for Perl</ref> for example, you can check if a given object does a role Template:Var: <syntaxhighlight lang="perl"> if ($object->meta->does_role("X")) {
# do something ...
} </syntaxhighlight>
This is how you can list fully qualified names of all of the methods that can be invoked on the object, together with the classes in which they were defined:
<syntaxhighlight lang="perl"> for my $method ($object->meta->get_all_methods) {
print $method->fully_qualified_name, "\n";
} </syntaxhighlight>
PythonEdit
The most common method of introspection in Python is using the <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">dir</syntaxhighlight> function to detail the attributes of an object. For example: <syntaxhighlight lang="python"> class Foo:
def __init__(self, val):
self.x = val
def bar(self):
return self.x
</syntaxhighlight>
<syntaxhighlight lang="pycon"> >>> dir(Foo(5)) ['__class__', '__delattr__', '__dict__', '__doc__', '__getattribute__', '__hash__', '__init__', '__module__', '__new__', '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__setattr__', '__str__', '__weakref__', 'bar', 'x'] </syntaxhighlight>
Also, the built-in functions <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">type</syntaxhighlight> and <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">isinstance</syntaxhighlight> can be used to determine what an object is while <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">hasattr</syntaxhighlight> can determine what an object does. For example:
<syntaxhighlight lang="pycon"> >>> a = Foo(10) >>> b = Bar(11) >>> type(a) <type 'Foo'> >>> isinstance(a, Foo) True >>> isinstance(a, type(a)) True >>> isinstance(a, type(b)) False >>> hasattr(a, 'bar') True </syntaxhighlight>
RubyEdit
Type introspection is a core feature of Ruby. In Ruby, the Object class (ancestor of every class) provides <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">Object#instance_of?</syntaxhighlight> and <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">Object#kind_of?</syntaxhighlight> methods for checking the instance's class. The latter returns true when the particular instance the message was sent to is an instance of a descendant of the class in question. For example, consider the following example code (you can immediately try this with the Interactive Ruby Shell): <syntaxhighlight lang="irb"> $ irb irb(main):001:0> A=Class.new => A irb(main):002:0> B=Class.new A => B irb(main):003:0> a=A.new => #<A:0x2e44b78> irb(main):004:0> b=B.new => #<B:0x2e431b0> irb(main):005:0> a.instance_of? A => true irb(main):006:0> b.instance_of? A => false irb(main):007:0> b.kind_of? A => true </syntaxhighlight> In the example above, the <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">Class</syntaxhighlight> class is used as any other class in Ruby. Two classes are created, <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">A</syntaxhighlight> and <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">B</syntaxhighlight>, the former is being a superclass of the latter, then one instance of each class is checked. The last expression gives true because <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">A</syntaxhighlight> is a superclass of the class of <syntaxhighlight lang="text" class="" style="" inline="1">b</syntaxhighlight>.
Further, you can directly ask for the class of any object, and "compare" them (code below assumes having executed the code above): <syntaxhighlight lang="irb"> irb(main):008:0> A.instance_of? Class => true irb(main):009:0> a.class => A irb(main):010:0> a.class.class => Class irb(main):011:0> A > B => true irb(main):012:0> B <= A => true </syntaxhighlight>
ActionScriptEdit
In ActionScript (as3), the function flash.utils.getQualifiedClassName can be used to retrieve the class/type name of an arbitrary object.
<syntaxhighlight lang="actionscript">
// all classes used in as3 must be imported explicitly
import flash.utils.getQualifiedClassName;
import flash.display.Sprite;
// trace is like System.out.println in Java or echo in PHP
trace(flash.utils.getQualifiedClassName("I'm a String")); // "String"
trace(flash.utils.getQualifiedClassName(1)); // "int", see dynamic casting for why not Number
trace(flash.utils.getQualifiedClassName(new flash.display.Sprite())); // "flash.display.Sprite"
</syntaxhighlight>
Alternatively, the operator is can be used to determine if an object is of a specific type:
<syntaxhighlight lang="actionscript">
// trace is like System.out.println in Java or echo in PHP
trace("I'm a String" is String); // true
trace(1 is String); // false
trace("I'm a String" is Number); // false
trace(1 is Number); // true
</syntaxhighlight>
This second function can be used to test class inheritance parents as well: <syntaxhighlight lang="actionscript"> import flash.display.DisplayObject; import flash.display.Sprite; // extends DisplayObject
trace(new flash.display.Sprite() is flash.display.Sprite); // true trace(new flash.display.Sprite() is flash.display.DisplayObject); // true, because Sprite extends DisplayObject trace(new flash.display.Sprite() is String); // false </syntaxhighlight>
Meta-type introspectionEdit
Like Perl, ActionScript can go further than getting the class name, but all the metadata, functions and other elements that make up an object using the flash.utils.describeType function; this is used when implementing reflection in ActionScript.
<syntaxhighlight lang="actionscript">
import flash.utils.describeType;
import flash.utils.getDefinitionByName;
import flash.utils.getQualifiedClassName;
import flash.display.Sprite;
var className:String = getQualifiedClassName(new flash.display.Sprite()); // "flash.display.Sprite" var classRef:Class = getDefinitionByName(className); // Class reference to flash.displayTemplate:Not a typoSprite // eg. 'new classRef()' same as 'new flash.display.Sprite()' trace(describeType(classRef)); // return XML object describing type // same as : trace(describeType(flash.display.Sprite)); </syntaxhighlight>