In your case you can use getGenericReturnType:
Type t = method.getGenericReturnType();
If you print t, you'll find that it's a java.lang.reflect.ParameterizedType Set<Employee>.
However, you've now stepped off a cliff in to the wacky world of java.lang.reflect.Type and its subtypes. If you wanted to properly discover whether t is a subtype or supertype of some other type, like HashSet<E>, you would need to implement the algorithm described here, at least in part.
To simply get the Employee class, you could do something like this:
if (t instanceof ParameterizedType) {
Type[] args = ((ParameterizedType) t).getActualTypeArguments();
for (Type arg : args) {
// This will print e.g. 'class com.example.Employee'
System.out.println(arg);
}
}
As a general note about this, though, if you have some situation like this:
class Foo<T> {
List<T> getList() {return ...;}
}
And then you do this:
Foo<String> f = new Foo<String>();
Method getList = f.getClass().getDeclaredMethod("getList");
Type tReturn = getList.getGenericReturnType();
// This prints 'List<T>', not 'List<String>':
System.out.println(tReturn);
The generic return type is List<T>, because getGenericReturnType() returns the type in the declaration. If you wanted to e.g. get List<String> from the class of a Foo<String>, you'd need to do something like new Foo<String>() {} so that the type argument is saved in a class file, then do some magic whereby you replace instances of the type variable T with the type argument to T. This starts to get in to some really heavy-duty reflection.
Edited with an example of how to test simple assignability of a parameterized type.
This will handle something like Set<Employee> and HashSet<Employee> as well as cases like the somewhat more complicated case depicted in the example, with Foo<F> implements Set<F> and Bar<A, B> extends Foo<B>. This doesn't handle nested types like List<List<T>> or types with wildcards. Those are more complicated.
Basically, you find the generic supertype e.g. Set<E>, then replace each type variable (just E for Set) with the type argument which correctly corresponds to it.
package mcve;
import java.util.*;
import java.lang.reflect.*;
class TypeTest {
class Employee {}
abstract class Foo<F> implements Set<F> {}
abstract class Bar<A, B> extends Foo<B> {}
Set<Employee> getSet() { return Collections.emptySet(); }
public static void main(String[] args) throws ReflectiveOperationException {
Method m = TypeTest.class.getDeclaredMethod("getSet");
Type r = m.getGenericReturnType();
if (r instanceof ParameterizedType) {
boolean isAssignable;
isAssignable =
// Testing i.e. Set<Employee> assignable from HashSet<Employee>
isNaivelyAssignable((ParameterizedType) r,
HashSet.class,
Employee.class);
System.out.println(isAssignable);
isAssignable =
// Testing i.e. Set<Employee> assignable from Bar<String, Employee>
isNaivelyAssignable((ParameterizedType) r,
Bar.class,
String.class,
Employee.class);
System.out.println(isAssignable);
}
}
static boolean isNaivelyAssignable(ParameterizedType sType,
Class<?> tRawType,
Class<?>... tArgs) {
Class<?> sRawType = (Class<?>) sType.getRawType();
Type[] sArgs = sType.getActualTypeArguments();
// Take the easy way out, if possible.
if (!sRawType.isAssignableFrom(tRawType)) {
return false;
}
// Take the easy way out, if possible.
if (sRawType.equals(tRawType)) {
return Arrays.equals(sArgs, tArgs);
}
Deque<ParameterizedType> tHierarchyToS = new ArrayDeque<>();
// Find the generic superclass of T whose raw type is the
// same as S. For example, suppose we have the following
// hierarchy and method:
// abstract class Foo<F> implements Set<F> {}
// abstract class Bar<A, B> extends Foo<B> {}
// class TypeTest { Set<Employee> getSet() {...} }
// The we invoke isNaivelyAssignable as follows:
// Method m = TypeTest.class.getDeclaredMethod("getSet");
// Type r = m.getGenericReturnType();
// if (t instanceof ParameterizedType) {
// boolean isAssignable =
// isNaivelyAssignable((ParameterizedType) r,
// Bar.class,
// String.class,
// Employee.class);
// }
// Clearly the method ought to return true because a
// Bar<String, Employee> is a Set<Employee>.
// To get there, first find the superclass of T
// (T is Bar<String, Employee>) whose raw type is the
// same as the raw type of S (S is Set<Employee>).
// So we want to find Set<F> from the implements clause
// in Foo.
Type tParameterizedS = findGenericSuper(sRawType, tRawType, tHierarchyToS);
if (tParameterizedS == null) {
// Somebody inherited from a raw type or something.
return false;
}
// Once we have Set<F>, we want to get the actual type
// arguments to Set<F>, which is just F in this case.
Type[] tArgsToSuper = tHierarchyToS.pop().getActualTypeArguments();
if (tArgsToSuper.length != sArgs.length) {
return false; // or throw IllegalArgumentException
}
// Then for each type argument to e.g. Set in the generic
// superclass of T, we want to map that type argument to
// one of tArgs. In the previous example, Set<F> should map
// to Set<Employee> because Employee.class is what we passed
// as the virtual type argument B in Bar<A, B> and B is what
// is eventually provided as a type argument to Set.
for (int i = 0; i < tArgsToSuper.length; ++i) {
// tArgToSuper_i is the type variable F
Type tArgToSuper_i = tArgsToSuper[i];
if (tArgToSuper_i instanceof TypeVariable<?>) {
// Copy the stack.
Deque<ParameterizedType> tSupers = new ArrayDeque<>(tHierarchyToS);
do {
TypeVariable<?> tVar_i = (TypeVariable<?>) tArgToSuper_i;
// The type variable F was declared on Foo so vDecl is
// Foo.class.
GenericDeclaration vDecl = tVar_i.getGenericDeclaration();
// Find the index of the type variable on its declaration,
// because we will use that index to look at the actual
// type arguments provided in the hierarchy. For example,
// the type argument F in Set<F> is at index 0 in Foo<F>.
// The type argument B to Foo<B> is at index 1 in Bar<A, B>.
TypeVariable<?>[] declVars = vDecl.getTypeParameters();
int tVarIndex = Arrays.asList(declVars).indexOf(tVar_i);
// Eventually we will walk backwards until we actually hit
// the class we passed in to the method, Bar.class, and are
// able to map the type variable on to one of the type
// arguments we passed in.
if (vDecl.equals(tRawType)) {
tArgToSuper_i = tArgs[tVarIndex];
} else {
// Otherwise we have to start backtracking through
// the stack until we hit the class where this type
// variable is declared. (It should just be the first
// pop(), but it could be the type variable is declared
// on e.g. a method or something, in which case we
// will empty the stack looking for it and eventually
// break from the loop and return false.)
while (!tSupers.isEmpty()) {
ParameterizedType tSuper = tSupers.pop();
Class<?> tRawSuper = (Class<?>) tSuper.getRawType();
if (vDecl.equals(tRawSuper)) {
tArgToSuper_i = tSuper.getActualTypeArguments()[tVarIndex];
break;
}
}
}
} while (tArgToSuper_i instanceof TypeVariable<?>);
}
if (!tArgToSuper_i.equals(sArgs[i])) {
return false;
}
}
return true;
}
// If we have a raw type S which is Set from e.g. the parameterized
// type Set<Employee> and a raw type T which is HashSet from e.g.
// the parameterized type HashSet<Employee> we want to find the
// generic superclass of HashSet which is the same as S, pushing
// each class in between on to the stack for later. Basically
// just walk upwards pushing each superclass until we hit Set.
// For e.g. s = Set.class and t = HashSet.class, then:
// tHierarchyToS = [Set<E>, AbstractSet<E>].
// For e.g. s = Set.class and t = Bar.class, then:
// tHierarchyToS = [Set<F>, Foo<B>]
static ParameterizedType findGenericSuper(Class<?> s,
Class<?> t,
Deque<ParameterizedType> tHierarchyToS) {
ParameterizedType tGenericSuper = null;
do {
List<Type> directSupertypes = new ArrayList<>();
directSupertypes.add(t.getGenericSuperclass());
Collections.addAll(directSupertypes, t.getGenericInterfaces());
for (Type directSuper : directSupertypes) {
if (directSuper instanceof ParameterizedType) {
ParameterizedType pDirectSuper = (ParameterizedType) directSuper;
Class<?> pRawSuper = (Class<?>) pDirectSuper.getRawType();
if (s.isAssignableFrom(pRawSuper)) {
tGenericSuper = pDirectSuper;
t = pRawSuper;
tHierarchyToS.push(tGenericSuper);
break;
}
}
}
} while (!s.equals(t) && tGenericSuper != null);
return tGenericSuper;
}
}
