Getting the name of the currently executing method

Question

Is there a way to get the name of the currently executing method in Java?

Answer 1

January 2009:
A full code would be (to use with @Bombe's caveat in mind):

/**
 * Get the method name for a depth in call stack. <br />
 * Utility function
 * @param depth depth in the call stack (0 means current method, 1 means call method, ...)
 * @return method name
 */
public static String getMethodName(final int depth)
{
  final StackTraceElement[] ste = Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace();

  //System. out.println(ste[ste.length-depth].getClassName()+"#"+ste[ste.length-depth].getMethodName());
  // return ste[ste.length - depth].getMethodName();  //Wrong, fails for depth = 0
  return ste[ste.length - 1 - depth].getMethodName(); //Thank you Tom Tresansky
}

More in this question.

Update December 2011:

bluish comments:

I use JRE 6 and gives me incorrect method name.
It works if I write ste[2 + depth].getMethodName().

• 0 is getStackTrace(),
• 1 is getMethodName(int depth) and
• 2 is invoking method.

virgo47's answer (upvoted) actually computes the right index to apply in order to get back the method name.

Answer 2

public static String getCurrentMethodName() {
        return Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace()[2].getClassName() + "." + Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace()[2].getMethodName();
    }

Answer 3

This can be done using StackWalker since Java 9.

public static String getCurrentMethodName() {
    return StackWalker.getInstance()
                      .walk(s -> s.skip(1).findFirst())
                      .get()
                      .getMethodName();
}

public static String getCallerMethodName() {
    return StackWalker.getInstance()
                      .walk(s -> s.skip(2).findFirst())
                      .get()
                      .getMethodName();
}

StackWalker is designed to be lazy, so it's likely to be more efficient than, say, Thread.getStackTrace which eagerly creates an array for the entire callstack. Also see the JEP for more information.

Answer 4

The fastest way I found is that:

import java.lang.reflect.Method;

public class TraceHelper {
    // save it static to have it available on every call
    private static Method m;

    static {
        try {
            m = Throwable.class.getDeclaredMethod("getStackTraceElement",
                    int.class);
            m.setAccessible(true);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    public static String getMethodName(final int depth) {
        try {
            StackTraceElement element = (StackTraceElement) m.invoke(
                    new Throwable(), depth + 1);
            return element.getMethodName();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            return null;
        }
    }
}

It accesses the native method getStackTraceElement(int depth) directly. And stores the accessible Method in a static variable.

Answer 5

Use the following Code :

    StackTraceElement[] stacktrace = Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace();
    StackTraceElement e = stacktrace[1];//coz 0th will be getStackTrace so 1st
    String methodName = e.getMethodName();
    System.out.println(methodName);

Answer 6

Util.java:

public static String getCurrentClassAndMethodNames() {
    final StackTraceElement e = Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace()[2];
    final String s = e.getClassName();
    return s.substring(s.lastIndexOf('.') + 1, s.length()) + "." + e.getMethodName();
}

SomeClass.java:

public class SomeClass {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println(Util.getCurrentClassAndMethodNames()); // output: SomeClass.main
    }
}