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javagroovyjvmbytecodeaccess-modifiers

How is Groovy able to access private methods of a Java class?

Groovy can access private methods and variables of a Java class. How does Groovy do this behind the scene? Is it because of the use of invokedynamic bytecode instruction which is used by MethodHandle class? I think Java uses invokespecial instruction for calling private methods and invokevirtual for public right which respects access modifiers?

Solution

  • Groovy is written in Java, so it hopefully doesn't rely on the byte code directly, it doesn't it using the Reflection API.

    For more details check for java.lang.reflect in the source code, you will then see how it uses the Reflection API behind the scene.