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A: It is possible to deduce the inherited fields and methods of a Java class using reflection through a recursive process that uses the Class method getSuperclass(). The Class method getFields() returns an array of Field objects for public fields only. The getDeclaredFields() returns an array of all declared fields in the current class, including private fields, but not the inherited fields. The getMethods() and getDeclaredMethods() methods return equivalent arrays of Method objects.
To obtain a list of all inherited fields or methods, a program would need to get the superclass of the object in question, store the return value for its getDeclaredFields() method then process each of its superclasses in turn. The simple example below prints out all the inherited fields in its immediate superclass Thread.
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