Nicoslav
Reflection in Elixir
Which are the most common ways to do Reflection in Elixir? Especially Object-Analysis and Class-Analysis would be nice to know since there isn’t really anything available in the internet towards this topic.
Thank you guys in advance!
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lukaszsamson
There are some tools and techniques that allow to do things comparable to what Java/.NET reflection APIs provide.
- for inspecting current loaded/running BEAM applications use functions from elixir
Applicationmodule (e.g.Application.all_started/0) - for working with loaded/complied module use erlang
:code, e.g. `:code.all_loaded/0’ - to fetch all functions/macros/callbacks of a given module use builtin functions
__info__/1,module_info/0,1, `behaviour_info/1 - Protocols provide some info by means of
__protocol__/1,impl_for/1,impl_for!/1functions - Struct can be converted to map with
Map.from_struct/1- use that to inspect/iterate over fields - Map can be converted to struct by putting special key e.g.
Map.put(my_map, :__struct__, MyModule) - It is possible to generate code and compile modules on the fly (look into
Code) - module alias is just an atom, you can generate it in the runtime by format string expressions, e.g.
:"Elixir.My.#{prefix}Module" - you can invoke any function with
apply - use
Code.fetch_docsto query documentation - use
Code.Typespec.fetch_specs/callbacks/typesto query dialyzer specs (warning - private API) - use macros and
Macro.pre/postwalkto generate/transform AST
gregvaughn
The closest thing I think of to Java reflection is the __info__/1 (Module — Elixir v1.8.1) function defined on each module. It lets you find out what function/arity are exported by each module, plus other metadata.
benwilson512
Reflection in Java is generally focused on classes, and since Elixir does not have classes or objects, there is nothing particularly equivalent to Java reflection at all.
Keep in mind, reflection is a tool that exists to solve problems a particular way. Elixir is an entirely different approach to programming than Java, and so it has entirely different tools. The best way to learn Elixir is on its own terms, and not try too hard to find Java equivalents.








