How do I find the caller of a method using stacktrace or reflection?

StackTraceElement[] stackTraceElements = Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace()

According to the Javadocs:

The last element of the array represents the bottom of the stack, which is the least recent method invocation in the sequence.

A StackTraceElement has getClassName(), getFileName(), getLineNumber() and getMethodName().

You will have to experiment to determine which index you want (probably stackTraceElements[1] or [2]).

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Note: if you are using Java 9 or later you should use StackWalker.getCallerClass() as described in Ali Dehghani's answer.

The comparison of different methods below is mostly interesting for historical reason.

An alternative solution can be found in a comment to this request for enhancement. It uses the getClassContext() method of a custom SecurityManager and seems to be faster than the stack trace method.

The following program tests the speed of the different suggested methods (the most interesting bit is in the inner class SecurityManagerMethod):

/**
 * Test the speed of various methods for getting the caller class name
 */
public class TestGetCallerClassName {

  /**
   * Abstract class for testing different methods of getting the caller class name
   */
  private static abstract class GetCallerClassNameMethod {
      public abstract String getCallerClassName(int callStackDepth);
      public abstract String getMethodName();
  }

  /**
   * Uses the internal Reflection class
   */
  private static class ReflectionMethod extends GetCallerClassNameMethod {
      public String getCallerClassName(int callStackDepth) {
          return sun.reflect.Reflection.getCallerClass(callStackDepth).getName();
      }

      public String getMethodName() {
          return "Reflection";
      }
  }

  /**
   * Get a stack trace from the current thread
   */
  private static class ThreadStackTraceMethod extends GetCallerClassNameMethod {
      public String  getCallerClassName(int callStackDepth) {
          return Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace()[callStackDepth].getClassName();
      }

      public String getMethodName() {
          return "Current Thread StackTrace";
      }
  }

  /**
   * Get a stack trace from a new Throwable
   */
  private static class ThrowableStackTraceMethod extends GetCallerClassNameMethod {

      public String getCallerClassName(int callStackDepth) {
          return new Throwable().getStackTrace()[callStackDepth].getClassName();
      }

      public String getMethodName() {
          return "Throwable StackTrace";
      }
  }

  /**
   * Use the SecurityManager.getClassContext()
   */
  private static class SecurityManagerMethod extends GetCallerClassNameMethod {
      public String  getCallerClassName(int callStackDepth) {
          return mySecurityManager.getCallerClassName(callStackDepth);
      }

      public String getMethodName() {
          return "SecurityManager";
      }

      /** 
       * A custom security manager that exposes the getClassContext() information
       */
      static class MySecurityManager extends SecurityManager {
          public String getCallerClassName(int callStackDepth) {
              return getClassContext()[callStackDepth].getName();
          }
      }

      private final static MySecurityManager mySecurityManager =
          new MySecurityManager();
  }

  /**
   * Test all four methods
   */
  public static void main(String[] args) {
      testMethod(new ReflectionMethod());
      testMethod(new ThreadStackTraceMethod());
      testMethod(new ThrowableStackTraceMethod());
      testMethod(new SecurityManagerMethod());
  }

  private static void testMethod(GetCallerClassNameMethod method) {
      long startTime = System.nanoTime();
      String className = null;
      for (int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++) {
          className = method.getCallerClassName(2);
      }
      printElapsedTime(method.getMethodName(), startTime);
  }

  private static void printElapsedTime(String title, long startTime) {
      System.out.println(title + ": " + ((double)(System.nanoTime() - startTime))/1000000 + " ms.");
  }
}

An example of the output from my 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook running Java 1.6.0_17:

Reflection: 10.195 ms.
Current Thread StackTrace: 5886.964 ms.
Throwable StackTrace: 4700.073 ms.
SecurityManager: 1046.804 ms.

The internal Reflection method is much faster than the others. Getting a stack trace from a newly created Throwable is faster than getting it from the current Thread. And among the non-internal ways of finding the caller class the custom SecurityManager seems to be the fastest.

Update

As lyomi points out in this comment the sun.reflect.Reflection.getCallerClass() method has been disabled by default in Java 7 update 40 and removed completely in Java 8. Read more about this in this issue in the Java bug database.

Update 2

As zammbi has found, Oracle was forced to back out of the change that removed the sun.reflect.Reflection.getCallerClass(). It is still available in Java 8 (but it is deprecated).

Update 3

3 years after: Update on timing with current JVM.

> java -version
java version "1.8.0"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0-b132)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.0-b70, mixed mode)
> java TestGetCallerClassName
Reflection: 0.194s.
Current Thread StackTrace: 3.887s.
Throwable StackTrace: 3.173s.
SecurityManager: 0.565s.

---

Java 9 - JEP 259: Stack-Walking API

JEP 259 provides an efficient standard API for stack walking that allows easy filtering of, and lazy access to, the information in stack traces. Before Stack-Walking API, common ways of accessing stack frames were:

Throwable::getStackTrace and Thread::getStackTrace return an array of StackTraceElement objects, which contain the class name and method name of each stack-trace element. SecurityManager::getClassContext is a protected method, which allows a SecurityManager subclass to access the class context. JDK-internal sun.reflect.Reflection::getCallerClass method which you shouldn't use anyway

Using these APIs are usually inefficient:

These APIs require the VM to eagerly capture a snapshot of the entire stack, and they return information representing the entire stack. There is no way to avoid the cost of examining all the frames if the caller is only interested in the top few frames on the stack.

In order to find the immediate caller's class, first obtain a StackWalker:

StackWalker walker = StackWalker
                           .getInstance(StackWalker.Option.RETAIN_CLASS_REFERENCE);

Then either call the getCallerClass():

Class<?> callerClass = walker.getCallerClass();

or walk the StackFrames and get the first preceding StackFrame:

walker.walk(frames -> frames
      .map(StackWalker.StackFrame::getDeclaringClass)
      .skip(1)
      .findFirst());

---

Sounds like you're trying to avoid passing a reference to this into the method. Passing this is way better than finding the caller through the current stack trace. Refactoring to a more OO design is even better. You shouldn't need to know the caller. Pass a callback object if necessary.

---

Oneliner:

Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace()[2].getMethodName()

Note that you might need to replace the 2 with 1.

---

This method does the same thing but a little more simply and possibly a little more performant and in the event you are using reflection, it skips those frames automatically. The only issue is it may not be present in non-Sun JVMs, although it is included in the runtime classes of JRockit 1.4-->1.6. (Point is, it is not a public class).

sun.reflect.Reflection

    /** Returns the class of the method <code>realFramesToSkip</code>
        frames up the stack (zero-based), ignoring frames associated
        with java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke() and its implementation.
        The first frame is that associated with this method, so
        <code>getCallerClass(0)</code> returns the Class object for
        sun.reflect.Reflection. Frames associated with
        java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke() and its implementation are
        completely ignored and do not count toward the number of "real"
        frames skipped. */
    public static native Class getCallerClass(int realFramesToSkip);

As far as what the realFramesToSkip value should be, the Sun 1.5 and 1.6 VM versions of java.lang.System, there is a package protected method called getCallerClass() which calls sun.reflect.Reflection.getCallerClass(3), but in my helper utility class I used 4 since there is the added frame of the helper class invocation.

---

     /**
       * 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 = new Throwable().getStackTrace();

        //System. out.println(ste[ste.length-depth].getClassName()+"#"+ste[ste.length-depth].getMethodName());
        return ste[ste.length - depth].getMethodName();
      }

For example, if you try to get the calling method line for debug purpose, you need to get past the Utility class in which you code those static methods: (old java1.4 code, just to illustrate a potential StackTraceElement usage)

        /**
          * Returns the first "[class#method(line)]: " of the first class not equal to "StackTraceUtils". <br />
          * From the Stack Trace.
          * @return "[class#method(line)]: " (never empty, first class past StackTraceUtils)
          */
        public static String getClassMethodLine()
        {
            return getClassMethodLine(null);
        }

        /**
          * Returns the first "[class#method(line)]: " of the first class not equal to "StackTraceUtils" and aclass. <br />
          * Allows to get past a certain class.
          * @param aclass class to get pass in the stack trace. If null, only try to get past StackTraceUtils. 
          * @return "[class#method(line)]: " (never empty, because if aclass is not found, returns first class past StackTraceUtils)
          */
        public static String getClassMethodLine(final Class aclass)
        {
            final StackTraceElement st = getCallingStackTraceElement(aclass);
            final String amsg = "[" + st.getClassName() + "#" + st.getMethodName() + "(" + st.getLineNumber()
            +")] <" + Thread.currentThread().getName() + ">: ";
            return amsg;
        }

     /**
       * Returns the first stack trace element of the first class not equal to "StackTraceUtils" or "LogUtils" and aClass. <br />
       * Stored in array of the callstack. <br />
       * Allows to get past a certain class.
       * @param aclass class to get pass in the stack trace. If null, only try to get past StackTraceUtils. 
       * @return stackTraceElement (never null, because if aClass is not found, returns first class past StackTraceUtils)
       * @throws AssertionFailedException if resulting statckTrace is null (RuntimeException)
       */
      public static StackTraceElement getCallingStackTraceElement(final Class aclass)
      {
        final Throwable           t         = new Throwable();
        final StackTraceElement[] ste       = t.getStackTrace();
        int index = 1;
        final int limit = ste.length;
        StackTraceElement   st        = ste[index];
        String              className = st.getClassName();
        boolean aclassfound = false;
        if(aclass == null)
        {
            aclassfound = true;
        }
        StackTraceElement   resst = null;
        while(index < limit)
        {
            if(shouldExamine(className, aclass) == true)
            {
                if(resst == null)
                {
                    resst = st;
                }
                if(aclassfound == true)
                {
                    final StackTraceElement ast = onClassfound(aclass, className, st);
                    if(ast != null)
                    {
                        resst = ast;
                        break;
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    if(aclass != null && aclass.getName().equals(className) == true)
                    {
                        aclassfound = true;
                    }
                }
            }
            index = index + 1;
            st        = ste[index];
            className = st.getClassName();
        }
        if(resst == null) 
        {
            //Assert.isNotNull(resst, "stack trace should null"); //NO OTHERWISE circular dependencies 
            throw new AssertionFailedException(StackTraceUtils.getClassMethodLine() + " null argument:" + "stack trace should null"); //$NON-NLS-1$
        }
        return resst;
      }

      static private boolean shouldExamine(String className, Class aclass)
      {
          final boolean res = StackTraceUtils.class.getName().equals(className) == false && (className.endsWith("LogUtils"
            ) == false || (aclass !=null && aclass.getName().endsWith("LogUtils")));
          return res;
      }

      static private StackTraceElement onClassfound(Class aclass, String className, StackTraceElement st)
      {
          StackTraceElement   resst = null;
          if(aclass != null && aclass.getName().equals(className) == false)
          {
              resst = st;
          }
          if(aclass == null)
          {
              resst = st;
          }
          return resst;
      }

---

I've done this before. You can just create a new exception and grab the stack trace on it without throwing it, then examine the stack trace. As the other answer says though, it's extremely costly--don't do it in a tight loop.

I've done it before for a logging utility on an app where performance didn't matter much (Performance rarely matters much at all, actually--as long as you display the result to an action such as a button click quickly).

It was before you could get the stack trace, exceptions just had .printStackTrace() so I had to redirect System.out to a stream of my own creation, then (new Exception()).printStackTrace(); Redirect System.out back and parse the stream. Fun stuff.

---

private void parseExceptionContents(
      final Exception exception,
      final OutputStream out)
   {
      final StackTraceElement[] stackTrace = exception.getStackTrace();
      int index = 0;
      for (StackTraceElement element : stackTrace)
      {
         final String exceptionMsg =
              "Exception thrown from " + element.getMethodName()
            + " in class " + element.getClassName() + " [on line number "
            + element.getLineNumber() + " of file " + element.getFileName() + "]";
         try
         {
            out.write((headerLine + newLine).getBytes());
            out.write((headerTitlePortion + index++ + newLine).getBytes() );
            out.write((headerLine + newLine).getBytes());
            out.write((exceptionMsg + newLine + newLine).getBytes());
            out.write(
               ("Exception.toString: " + element.toString() + newLine).getBytes());
         }
         catch (IOException ioEx)
         {
            System.err.println(
                 "IOException encountered while trying to write "
               + "StackTraceElement data to provided OutputStream.\n"
               + ioEx.getMessage() );
         }
      }
   }

---

Here is a part of the code that I made based in the hints showed in this topic. Hope it helps.

(Feel free to make any suggestions to improve this code, please tell me)

The counter:

public class InstanceCount{
    private static Map<Integer, CounterInstanceLog> instanceMap = new HashMap<Integer, CounterInstanceLog>();
private CounterInstanceLog counterInstanceLog;


    public void count() {
        counterInstanceLog= new counterInstanceLog();
    if(counterInstanceLog.getIdHashCode() != 0){
    try {
        if (instanceMap .containsKey(counterInstanceLog.getIdHashCode())) {
         counterInstanceLog= instanceMap .get(counterInstanceLog.getIdHashCode());
    }

    counterInstanceLog.incrementCounter();

            instanceMap .put(counterInstanceLog.getIdHashCode(), counterInstanceLog);
    }

    (...)
}

And the object:

public class CounterInstanceLog{
    private int idHashCode;
    private StackTraceElement[] arrayStackTraceElements;
    private int instanceCount;
    private String callerClassName;

    private StackTraceElement getProjectClasses(int depth) {
      if(depth< 10){
        getCallerClassName(sun.reflect.Reflection.getCallerClass(depth).getName());
        if(getCallerClassName().startsWith("com.yourproject.model")){
            setStackTraceElements(Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace());
            setIdHashCode();
        return arrayStackTraceElements[depth];
        }
        //+2 because one new item are added to the stackflow
        return getProjectClasses(profundidade+2);           
      }else{
        return null;
      }
    }

    private void setIdHashCode() {
        if(getNomeClasse() != null){
            this.idHashCode = (getCallerClassName()).hashCode();
        }
    }

    public void incrementaContador() {
    this.instanceCount++;
}

    //getters and setters

    (...)



}

---

import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintWriter;

class DBConnection {
    String createdBy = null;

    DBConnection(Throwable whoCreatedMe) {
        ByteArrayOutputStream os = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(os);
        whoCreatedMe.printStackTrace(pw);
        try {
            createdBy = os.toString();
            pw.close();
            os.close();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

public class ThrowableTest {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        Throwable createdBy = new Throwable(
                "Connection created from DBConnectionManager");
        DBConnection conn = new DBConnection(createdBy);
        System.out.println(conn.createdBy);
    }
}

OR

public static interface ICallback<T> { T doOperation(); }


public class TestCallerOfMethod {

    public static <T> T callTwo(final ICallback<T> c){
        // Pass the object created at callee to the caller
        // From the passed object we can get; what is the callee name like below.
        System.out.println(c.getClass().getEnclosingMethod().getName());
        return c.doOperation();
    }

    public static boolean callOne(){
        ICallback callBackInstance = new ICallback(Boolean){
            @Override
            public Boolean doOperation() 
            {
                return true;
            }
        };
        return callTwo(callBackInstance);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
         callOne();
    }
}

---

use this method:-

 StackTraceElement[] stacktrace = Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace();
 stackTraceElement e = stacktrace[2];//maybe this number needs to be corrected
 System.out.println(e.getMethodName());

Caller of method example Code is here:-

public class TestString {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        TestString testString = new TestString();
        testString.doit1();
        testString.doit2();
        testString.doit3();
        testString.doit4();
    }

    public void doit() {
        StackTraceElement[] stacktrace = Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace();
        StackTraceElement e = stacktrace[2];//maybe this number needs to be corrected
        System.out.println(e.getMethodName());
    }

    public void doit1() {
        doit();
    }

    public void doit2() {
        doit();
    }

    public void doit3() {
        doit();
    }

    public void doit4() {
        doit();
    }
}

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