How do I find the caller of a method using stacktrace or reflection?

StackTraceElement[] stackTraceElements = Thread.currentThread().getStackTrace()

According to the Javadocs:

The last element of the array represents the bottom of the stack, which is the least recent method invocation in the sequence.

A StackTraceElement has getClassName(), getFileName(), getLineNumber() and getMethodName().

You will have to experiment to determine which index you want (probably stackTraceElements[1] or [2]).

Sounds like you're trying to avoid passing a reference to this into the method. Passing this is way better than finding the caller through the current stack trace. Refactoring to a more OO design is even better. You shouldn't need to know the caller. Pass a callback object if necessary.

This method does the same thing but a little more simply and possibly a little more performant and in the event you are using reflection, it skips those frames automatically. The only issue is it may not be present in non-Sun JVMs, although it is included in the runtime classes of JRockit 1.4-->1.6. (Point is, it is not a public class).

sun.reflect.Reflection

    /** Returns the class of the method <code>realFramesToSkip</code>
        frames up the stack (zero-based), ignoring frames associated
        with java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke() and its implementation.
        The first frame is that associated with this method, so
        <code>getCallerClass(0)</code> returns the Class object for
        sun.reflect.Reflection. Frames associated with
        java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke() and its implementation are
        completely ignored and do not count toward the number of "real"
        frames skipped. */
    public static native Class getCallerClass(int realFramesToSkip);

As far as what the realFramesToSkip value should be, the Sun 1.5 and 1.6 VM versions of java.lang.System, there is a package protected method called getCallerClass() which calls sun.reflect.Reflection.getCallerClass(3), but in my helper utility class I used 4 since there is the added frame of the helper class invocation.

     /**
       * Get the method name for a depth in call stack. <br />
       * Utility function
       * @param depth depth in the call stack (0 means current method, 1 means call method, ...)
       * @return method name
       */
      public static String getMethodName(final int depth)
      {
        final StackTraceElement[] ste = new Throwable().getStackTrace();

        //System. out.println(ste[ste.length-depth].getClassName()+"#"+ste[ste.length-depth].getMethodName());
        return ste[ste.length - depth].getMethodName();
      }

For example, if you try to get the calling method line for debug purpose, you need to get past the Utility class in which you code those static methods:
(old java1.4 code, just to illustrate a potential StackTraceElement usage)

        /**
          * Returns the first "[class#method(line)]: " of the first class not equal to "StackTraceUtils". <br />
          * From the Stack Trace.
          * @return "[class#method(line)]: " (never empty, first class past StackTraceUtils)
          */
        public static String getClassMethodLine()
        {
            return getClassMethodLine(null);
        }

        /**
          * Returns the first "[class#method(line)]: " of the first class not equal to "StackTraceUtils" and aclass. <br />
          * Allows to get past a certain class.
          * @param aclass class to get pass in the stack trace. If null, only try to get past StackTraceUtils. 
          * @return "[class#method(line)]: " (never empty, because if aclass is not found, returns first class past StackTraceUtils)
          */
        public static String getClassMethodLine(final Class aclass)
        {
            final StackTraceElement st = getCallingStackTraceElement(aclass);
            final String amsg = "[" + st.getClassName() + "#" + st.getMethodName() + "(" + st.getLineNumber()
            +")] <" + Thread.currentThread().getName() + ">: ";
            return amsg;
        }

     /**
       * Returns the first stack trace element of the first class not equal to "StackTraceUtils" or "LogUtils" and aClass. <br />
       * Stored in array of the callstack. <br />
       * Allows to get past a certain class.
       * @param aclass class to get pass in the stack trace. If null, only try to get past StackTraceUtils. 
       * @return stackTraceElement (never null, because if aClass is not found, returns first class past StackTraceUtils)
       * @throws AssertionFailedException if resulting statckTrace is null (RuntimeException)
       */
      public static StackTraceElement getCallingStackTraceElement(final Class aclass)
      {
        final Throwable           t         = new Throwable();
        final StackTraceElement[] ste       = t.getStackTrace();
        int index = 1;
        final int limit = ste.length;
        StackTraceElement   st        = ste[index];
        String              className = st.getClassName();
        boolean aclassfound = false;
        if(aclass == null)
        {
            aclassfound = true;
        }
        StackTraceElement   resst = null;
        while(index < limit)
        {
            if(shouldExamine(className, aclass) == true)
            {
                if(resst == null)
                {
                    resst = st;
                }
                if(aclassfound == true)
                {
                    final StackTraceElement ast = onClassfound(aclass, className, st);
                    if(ast != null)
                    {
                        resst = ast;
                        break;
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    if(aclass != null && aclass.getName().equals(className) == true)
                    {
                        aclassfound = true;
                    }
                }
            }
            index = index + 1;
            st        = ste[index];
            className = st.getClassName();
        }
        if(resst == null) 
        {
            //Assert.isNotNull(resst, "stack trace should null"); //NO OTHERWISE circular dependencies 
            throw new AssertionFailedException(StackTraceUtils.getClassMethodLine() + " null argument:" + "stack trace should null"); //$NON-NLS-1$
        }
        return resst;
      }

      static private boolean shouldExamine(String className, Class aclass)
      {
          final boolean res = StackTraceUtils.class.getName().equals(className) == false && (className.endsWith("LogUtils"
            ) == false || (aclass !=null && aclass.getName().endsWith("LogUtils")));
          return res;
      }

      static private StackTraceElement onClassfound(Class aclass, String className, StackTraceElement st)
      {
          StackTraceElement   resst = null;
          if(aclass != null && aclass.getName().equals(className) == false)
          {
              resst = st;
          }
          if(aclass == null)
          {
              resst = st;
          }
          return resst;
      }

I've done this before. You can just create a new exception and grab the stack trace on it without throwing it, then examine the stack trace. As the other answer says though, it's extremely costly--don't do it in a tight loop.

I've done it before for a logging utility on an app where performance didn't matter much (Performance rarely matters much at all, actually--as long as you display the result to an action such as a button click quickly).

It was before you could get the stack trace, exceptions just had .printStackTrace() so I had to redirect System.out to a stream of my own creation, then (new Exception()).printStackTrace(); Redirect System.out back and parse the stream. Fun stuff.