Copy all values from fields in one class to anothe

Question

I have a class which is basically a copy of another class.

public class A {
  int a;
  String b;
}

public class CopyA {
  int a;
  String b;
}

What I am doing is putting values from class A into CopyA before sending CopyA through a webservice call. Now I would like to create a reflection-method that basically copies all fields that are identical (by name and type) from class A to class CopyA.

How can I do this?

This is what I have so far, but it doesn't quite work. I think the problem here is that I am trying to set a field on the field I am looping through.

private <T extends Object, Y extends Object> void copyFields(T from, Y too) {

    Class<? extends Object> fromClass = from.getClass();
    Field[] fromFields = fromClass.getDeclaredFields();

    Class<? extends Object> tooClass = too.getClass();
    Field[] tooFields = tooClass.getDeclaredFields();

    if (fromFields != null && tooFields != null) {
        for (Field tooF : tooFields) {
            logger.debug("toofield name #0 and type #1", tooF.getName(), tooF.getType().toString());
            try {
                // Check if that fields exists in the other method
                Field fromF = fromClass.getDeclaredField(tooF.getName());
                if (fromF.getType().equals(tooF.getType())) {
                    tooF.set(tooF, fromF);
                }
            } catch (SecurityException e) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (NoSuchFieldException e) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
                // TODO Auto-generated catch block
                e.printStackTrace();
            }

        }
    }

I am sure there must be someone that has already done this somehow

Answer 1

The first argument to tooF.set() should be the target object (too), not the field, and the second argument should be the value, not the field the value comes from. (To get the value, you need to call fromF.get() -- again passing in a target object, in this case from.)

Most of the reflection API works this way. You get Field objects, Method objects, and so on from the class, not from an instance, so to use them (except for statics) you generally need to pass them an instance.

Answer 2

I didn't want to add dependency to another JAR file because of this, so wrote something which would suit my needs. I follow the convention of fjorm https://code.google.com/p/fjorm/ which means that my generally accessible fields are public and that I don't bother to write setters and getters. (in my opinion code is easier to manage and more readable actually)

So I wrote something (it's not actually much difficult) which suits my needs (assumes that the class has public constructor without args) and it could be extracted into utility class

  public Effect copyUsingReflection() {
    Constructor constructorToUse = null;
    for (Constructor constructor : this.getClass().getConstructors()) {
      if (constructor.getParameterTypes().length == 0) {
        constructorToUse = constructor;
        constructorToUse.setAccessible(true);
      }
    }
    if (constructorToUse != null) {
      try {
        Effect copyOfEffect = (Effect) constructorToUse.newInstance();
        for (Field field : this.getClass().getFields()) {
          try {
            Object valueToCopy = field.get(this);
            //if it has field of the same type (Effect in this case), call the method to copy it recursively
            if (valueToCopy instanceof Effect) {
              valueToCopy = ((Effect) valueToCopy).copyUsingReflection();
            }
            //TODO add here other special types of fields, like Maps, Lists, etc.
            field.set(copyOfEffect, valueToCopy);
          } catch (IllegalArgumentException | IllegalAccessException ex) {
            Logger.getLogger(Effect.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
          }
        }
        return copyOfEffect;
      } catch (InstantiationException | IllegalAccessException | IllegalArgumentException | InvocationTargetException ex) {
        Logger.getLogger(Effect.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
      }
    }
    return null;
  }

Answer 3

Dozer

UPDATE Nov 19 2012: There's now a new ModelMapper project too.

Answer 4

Spring has a built in BeanUtils.copyProperties method. But it doesn't work with classes without getters/setters. JSON serialization/deserialization can be another option for copying fields. Jackson can be used for this purpose. If you are using Spring In most cases Jackson is already in your dependency list.

ObjectMapper mapper     = new ObjectMapper().configure(DeserializationFeature.FAIL_ON_UNKNOWN_PROPERTIES, false);
Clazz        copyObject = mapper.readValue(mapper.writeValueAsString(sourceObject), Clazz.class);

Answer 5

My solution:

public static <T > void copyAllFields(T to, T from) {
        Class<T> clazz = (Class<T>) from.getClass();
        // OR:
        // Class<T> clazz = (Class<T>) to.getClass();
        List<Field> fields = getAllModelFields(clazz);

        if (fields != null) {
            for (Field field : fields) {
                try {
                    field.setAccessible(true);
                    field.set(to,field.get(from));
                } catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }
    }

public static List<Field> getAllModelFields(Class aClass) {
    List<Field> fields = new ArrayList<>();
    do {
        Collections.addAll(fields, aClass.getDeclaredFields());
        aClass = aClass.getSuperclass();
    } while (aClass != null);
    return fields;
}

Answer 6

Here is a working and tested solution. You can control the depth of the mapping in the class hierarchy.

public class FieldMapper {

    public static void copy(Object from, Object to) throws Exception {
        FieldMapper.copy(from, to, Object.class);
    }

    public static void copy(Object from, Object to, Class depth) throws Exception {
        Class fromClass = from.getClass();
        Class toClass = to.getClass();
        List<Field> fromFields = collectFields(fromClass, depth);
        List<Field> toFields = collectFields(toClass, depth);
        Field target;
        for (Field source : fromFields) {
            if ((target = findAndRemove(source, toFields)) != null) {
                target.set(to, source.get(from));
            }
        }
    }

    private static List<Field> collectFields(Class c, Class depth) {
        List<Field> accessibleFields = new ArrayList<>();
        do {
            int modifiers;
            for (Field field : c.getDeclaredFields()) {
                modifiers = field.getModifiers();
                if (!Modifier.isStatic(modifiers) && Modifier.isPublic(modifiers)) {
                    accessibleFields.add(field);
                }
            }
            c = c.getSuperclass();
        } while (c != null && c != depth);
        return accessibleFields;
    }

    private static Field findAndRemove(Field field, List<Field> fields) {
        Field actual;
        for (Iterator<Field> i = fields.iterator(); i.hasNext();) {
            actual = i.next();
            if (field.getName().equals(actual.getName())
                && field.getType().equals(actual.getType())) {
                i.remove();
                return actual;
            }
        }
        return null;
    }
}