Update:
Some 10 years later perhaps the best way to test a private method, or any inaccessible member, is via @Jailbreak
from the Manifold framework.
@Jailbreak Foo foo = new Foo();
// Direct, *type-safe* access to *all* foo's members
foo.privateMethod(x, y, z);
foo.privateField = value;
This way your code remains type-safe and readable. No design compromises, no overexposing methods and fields for the sake of tests.
If you have somewhat of a legacy Java application, and you're not allowed to change the visibility of your methods, the best way to test private methods is to use reflection.
Internally we're using helpers to get/set private
and private static
variables as well as invoke private
and private static
methods. The following patterns will let you do pretty much anything related to the private methods and fields. Of course, you can't change private static final
variables through reflection.
Method method = TargetClass.getDeclaredMethod(methodName, argClasses);
method.setAccessible(true);
return method.invoke(targetObject, argObjects);
And for fields:
Field field = TargetClass.getDeclaredField(fieldName);
field.setAccessible(true);
field.set(object, value);
Notes:
1. TargetClass.getDeclaredMethod(methodName, argClasses)
lets you look into private
methods. The same thing applies for
getDeclaredField
.
2. The setAccessible(true)
is required to play around with privates.
There are several differences between HashMap
and Hashtable
in Java:
Hashtable
is synchronized, whereas HashMap
is not. This makes HashMap
better for non-threaded applications, as unsynchronized Objects typically perform better than synchronized ones.
Hashtable
does not allow null
keys or values. HashMap
allows one null
key and any number of null
values.
One of HashMap's subclasses is LinkedHashMap
, so in the event that you'd want predictable iteration order (which is insertion order by default), you could easily swap out the HashMap
for a LinkedHashMap
. This wouldn't be as easy if you were using Hashtable
.
Since synchronization is not an issue for you, I'd recommend HashMap
. If synchronization becomes an issue, you may also look at ConcurrentHashMap
.
Best Answer
Usually generics are represented as classifier's template parameter. Here is the example how it looks like in the NetBeans UML Plugin: