Getting the current method name in Java 1.5

Example of how to write functions that return the name of the calling method (only works in Java 1.5):

	public static String getCallingMethod() {
		return trace(Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace(), 2);
	}

	public static String getCallingMethod(int level) {
		return trace(Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace(), 2 + level);
	}
	
	private static String trace(StackTraceElement e[], int level) {
		if(e != null && e.length >= level) {
			StackTraceElement s = e[level];
			if(s != null) {
				return s.getMethodName();
			}
		}
		return null;
	}

JUnit test for this (assuming the methods above were written in a class called StackUtil):

public class StackUtilTests extends TestCase {

	public void testGetCallingMethod() {
		String callingMethod = StackUtil.getCallingMethod();
		System.out.println("callingMethod = " + callingMethod);
		assertEquals("testGetCallingMethod", callingMethod);
	}

	public void testGetCallingMethodWithLevel() {
		String callingMethod = StackUtil.getCallingMethod(0);
		System.out.println("callingMethod = " + callingMethod);
		assertEquals("testGetCallingMethodWithLevel", callingMethod);
	}

	public void testGetCallingMethodOneLevel() {
		String callingMethod = testGetCallingMethodOneLevelPrivate();
		assertEquals("testGetCallingMethodOneLevel", callingMethod);
	}
	
	private String testGetCallingMethodOneLevelPrivate() {
		String callingMethod = StackUtil.getCallingMethod(1);
		System.out.println("callingMethod = " + callingMethod);
		return callingMethod;
	}	
	
}

Nilesh D Kapadia

Getting the current method name in Java 1.5