From bd05989c0b84387010ac4b92f1727773b8fa8b03 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Terry Lewis <terry1994dev@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2019 11:36:27 +1000
Subject: [PATCH] Created a section on using reflection with Java (#33429)

This is the beginning of a reflection section for Java. Other topics to cover should include overriding methods and calling private methods.
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 guide/english/java/reflection/index.md | 64 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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+---
+title: Reflection
+---
+# Reflection
+
+In Java, reflection is a powerful tool that can be used to do *virtually* anything. This can be considered a 
+double-edged sword, as it is at times required, yet, it is often exploited and used innappropriately.
+It can, however, be particularly useful, if for whatever reason, a private method or private variable needs to be 
+called, a method needs to be hooked or replaced, and so on.
+Reasoning for doing this may vary, for example, a developer may not have access to the original source-code for a library
+that they are working with and may need to work around this constraint.
+
+# Application
+
+## Assigning a private or protected variable
+
+As previously mentioned, assigning a private or protected variable can be made possible with the use of reflection.
+
+Consider the following class:
+```
+public class MyClass {
+  private String hiddenString = "Hello!";
+
+  public String getHiddenString() {
+    return this.hiddenString;
+  }
+}
+```
+
+As we can see, the `hiddenString` object is marked `private`, meaning we cannot directly access it.
+It is however, accessible through the `getHiddenString()` method.
+This won't allow us to change the value of the variable, we can, however, change it using reflection.
+
+Consider the following code:
+
+```
+...
+MyClass myObject = new MyClass();
+...
+```
+
+We have an instance of myObject at this point, so let's mark the private variable as accessible.
+
+```
+// Create an instance of the object.
+MyClass myObject = new MyClass();
+
+// Obtain a reference to the object's private member field, we know the name of the private variable is 
+// 'hiddenString'.
+Field hiddenStringField = myObject.getClass().getDeclaredField("hiddenString");
+// Mark the field as accessible, this effectively tells the JVM that the field is not private, thus
+// we can now access it.
+hiddenStringField.setAccessible(true);
+
+// The Java compiler doesn't know we have marked the field as accessible. If we wish to set the value,
+// we must do so via reflection. We call the set() method on our field, supplying the target object 
+// (myObject) and the target value.
+// We have successfully set the value, using reflection!
+hiddenStringField.set(myObject, "Hello, World!");
+
+// This will print our newly assigned string, as we have assigned the private variable within our
+// myObject instance.
+System.out.println(myObject.getHiddenString());
+```