Java Tip 124: Trace your steps in Java 1.4

I don’t know about you, but I really like to know where I am. Being a guy, I’m never lost, but sometimes I just don’t know where I am. Some places, such as malls, have maps with “You Are Here” indicators. Similarly, Java now lets us figure out our location with the system’s help. In this tip, I’ll show you how to extract this location information from the system in a consistent and reliable manner.

I firmly believe the runtime system should provide enough metadata about the system itself so programs can make better decisions and complete tasks. Java has been able to introspect and reflect on classes for some time, but until now it has lacked the simple ability to map runtime code back to its position in the source code file. The pre-Java 1.4 solution was to manually parse an exception’s stack trace. Now, with Java 1.4, we have a better solution.

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