How to interpret the "encoded" form of method signatures?

[david.karr]

I've never known all the rules for interpreting "encoded" signatures
like "package.class.func()Ljava/util/Set". I usually make a
reasonable guess for what I think it specifies. I'd really like to
know the exact rules, as strings like this often come up in exception
stack traces. Where is this documented? Would the JLS cover this in
a readable form?

 

[Mike Schilling]

I've never known all the rules for interpreting "encoded" signatures
like "package.class.func()Ljava/util/Set". I usually make a
reasonable guess for what I think it specifies. I'd really like to
know the exact rules, as strings like this often come up in
exception
stack traces. Where is this documented? Would the JLS cover this
in
a readable form?

Look at
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jvms/second_edition/html/ClassFile.doc.html#7035

 

[David Karr]

Look athttp://java.sun.com/docs/books/jvms/second_edition/html/ClassFile.doc...

Thanks. Understanding it completely actually requires moving up a
page or two to section "4.3 Descriptors". This makes it all clear.

 

[Roedy Green]

I've never known all the rules for interpreting "encoded" signatures
like "package.class.func()Ljava/util/Set". I usually make a
reasonable guess for what I think it specifies. I'd really like to
know the exact rules, as strings like this often come up in exception
stack traces. Where is this documented? Would the JLS cover this in
a readable form?

see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/signature.html
--
Roedy Green Canadian Mind Products
http://mindprod.com

If everyone lived the way people do in Vancouver, we would need three more entire planets to support us.
~ Guy Dauncey

 

[Joshua Cranmer]

Look at
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jvms/second_edition/html/ClassFile.doc.html#7035

To be perfectly fair, that doesn't have the new additions for generic
method signatures, since (bizarrely) Sun never made a third edition of
the JVM. Granted, the generic parts do not make up the method
descriptor, only the Signature attributes.