Exploring practical reflection

In this hands-on section, we delve into the practical application of Java’s Reflection API by creating a versatile Mapper interface. We aim to implement methods that dynamically convert objects of a given class to and from Map<String, Object>. The Mapper interface serves as a blueprint for a generic solution, allowing us to flex the muscles of reflection in a real-world scenario.

Let’s begin with the Mapper interface:

public interface Mapper {    <T> Map<String, Object> toMap(T entity);
    <T> T toEntity(Map<String, Object> map);
}

The toMap method is designed to convert an object of type T into a map, where each key-value pair represents a field name and its corresponding value. Conversely, the toEntity method reverses this process, reconstructing an object of type T from a given map.

Now, armed with the theory from the previous part, we’ll put reflection...