reflection and private members

[Tareq]

hi everyone,
i was testing reflection and used the following code to get fields in the
jaav.util.Vector class :

Field[] f= Vector.class.getDeclaredFields();

for ( int i=0; i < f.length; i++)
{
System.out.println(f[i]);
}

after executing the code, one of the displayed lines was :

private static final long Vector.serialVersionUID

and i could display the value in the field
serialVersionUID although it is private?? how come this field is displayed
by reflection api although it is private??

thanks

[Paul Clapham]

You can discover that there is a private field called "serialVersionUID".
But if you try to use "f[i].get(aVector)" to get the value of that field for
a particular vector, you will get an IllegalAccessException -- at least, I
did when I tried it.

Tareq <shaheen_75@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:3998f4e1$1@news.devx.com...
>
> hi everyone,
> i was testing reflection and used the following code to get fields in the
> jaav.util.Vector class :
>
> Field[] f= Vector.class.getDeclaredFields();
>
> for ( int i=0; i < f.length; i++)
>

> System.out.println(f[i]);
> }
>
> after executing the code, one of the displayed lines was :
>
> private static final long Vector.serialVersionUID
>
> and i could display the value in the field
> serialVersionUID although it is private?? how come this field is displayed
> by reflection api although it is private??
>
> thanks
>
>