Core Java™ 2 Volume II - Advanced Features, Seventh Edition

Encoding Signatures

To access instance fields and call methods that are defined in the Java programming language, you need to learn the rules for “mangling” the names of data types and method signatures. (A method signature describes the parameters and return type of the method.) Here is the encoding scheme:

B	byte
C	char
D	double
F	float
I	int
J	long
Lclassname;	a class type
S	short
V	void
Z	boolean

Note that the semicolon at the end of the L expression is the terminator of the type expression, not a separator between parameters. For example, the constructor

Employee(java.lang.String, double, java.util.Date)

has a signature

"(Ljava/lang/String;DLjava/util/Date;)V"

Note that there is no separator between the D and Ljava/util/Date;.

Also note that in this encoding ...