Exception When Invoking Private Method Using Reflection in Junit

Question

I have something like the following class:

    public class MyService {

    private static DateTimeFormatter outputFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("uuuu-MM-dd");


    private String reformatDate(String date) {
        String localDate = date;

        if(localDate != null)
            localDate = outputFormatter.format(ZonedDateTime.parse(localDate));

        return localDate;
    }

}

,and this junit:

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;
import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;

Class MyServiceTest {

    private static MyService myService = new MyService();


    @Test
    void testReformatDate() throws NoSuchMethodException, IllegalAccessException, InvocationTargetException {
        String testDate = "2022-11-30T14:16:19.449Z";
        assertEquals("2022-11-30", getReformatDateMethod().invoke(testDate));

    }

    private Method getReformatDateMethod() throws NoSuchMethodException {
        Class[] cArg = new Class[1];
        cArg[0] = String.class;

        Method method = myService.getClass().getDeclaredMethod("reformatDate", cArg);
        method.setAccessible(true);

        return method;
    }

}

When the invoke is called, I get this exception:

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: object is not an instance of declaring class

at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:566)
at blah.MyServiceTest.testReformatDate(MyServiceTest.java:14)
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:566)
at org.junit.platform.commons.util.ReflectionUtils.invokeMethod(ReflectionUtils.java:688)
at org.junit.jupiter.engine.execution.MethodInvocation.proceed(MethodInvocation.java:60)
at org.junit.jupiter.engine.execution.InvocationInterceptorChain$ValidatingInvocation.proceed(InvocationInterceptorChain.java:131)
at org.junit.jupiter.engine.extension.TimeoutExtension.intercept(TimeoutExtension.java:149)
at org.junit.jupiter.engine.extension.TimeoutExtension.interceptTestableMethod(TimeoutExtension.java:140)
at org.junit.jupiter.engine.extension.TimeoutExtension.interceptTestMethod(TimeoutExtension.java:84)
at org.junit.jupiter.engine.execution.ExecutableInvoker$ReflectiveInterceptorCall.lambda$ofVoidMethod$0(ExecutableInvoker.java:115)
at org.junit.jupiter.engine.execution.ExecutableInvoker.lambda$invoke$0(ExecutableInvoker.java:105)
at org.junit.jupiter.engine.execution.InvocationInterceptorChain$InterceptedInvocation.proceed(InvocationInterceptorChain.java:106)
at org.junit.jupiter.engine.execution.InvocationInterceptorChain.proceed(InvocationInterceptorChain.java:64)
at org.junit.jupiter.engine.execution.InvocationInterceptorChain.chainAndInvoke(InvocationInterceptorChain.java:45)
at org.junit.jupiter.engine.execution.InvocationInterceptorChain.invoke(InvocationInterceptorChain.java:37)
at org.junit.jupiter.engine.execution.ExecutableInvoker.invoke(ExecutableInvoker.java:104)
at org.junit.jupiter.engine.execution.ExecutableInvoker.invoke(ExecutableInvoker.java:98)
at org.junit.jupiter.engine.descriptor.TestMethodTestDescriptor.lambda$invokeTestMethod$6(TestMethodTestDescriptor.java:210)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.ThrowableCollector.execute(ThrowableCollector.java:73)
at org.junit.jupiter.engine.descriptor.TestMethodTestDescriptor.invokeTestMethod(TestMethodTestDescriptor.java:206)
at org.junit.jupiter.engine.descriptor.TestMethodTestDescriptor.execute(TestMethodTestDescriptor.java:131)
at org.junit.jupiter.engine.descriptor.TestMethodTestDescriptor.execute(TestMethodTestDescriptor.java:65)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.NodeTestTask.lambda$executeRecursively$5(NodeTestTask.java:139)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.ThrowableCollector.execute(ThrowableCollector.java:73)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.NodeTestTask.lambda$executeRecursively$7(NodeTestTask.java:129)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.Node.around(Node.java:137)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.NodeTestTask.lambda$executeRecursively$8(NodeTestTask.java:127)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.ThrowableCollector.execute(ThrowableCollector.java:73)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.NodeTestTask.executeRecursively(NodeTestTask.java:126)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.NodeTestTask.execute(NodeTestTask.java:84)
at java.base/java.util.ArrayList.forEach(ArrayList.java:1541)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.SameThreadHierarchicalTestExecutorService.invokeAll(SameThreadHierarchicalTestExecutorService.java:38)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.NodeTestTask.lambda$executeRecursively$5(NodeTestTask.java:143)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.ThrowableCollector.execute(ThrowableCollector.java:73)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.NodeTestTask.lambda$executeRecursively$7(NodeTestTask.java:129)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.Node.around(Node.java:137)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.NodeTestTask.lambda$executeRecursively$8(NodeTestTask.java:127)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.ThrowableCollector.execute(ThrowableCollector.java:73)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.NodeTestTask.executeRecursively(NodeTestTask.java:126)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.NodeTestTask.execute(NodeTestTask.java:84)
at java.base/java.util.ArrayList.forEach(ArrayList.java:1541)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.SameThreadHierarchicalTestExecutorService.invokeAll(SameThreadHierarchicalTestExecutorService.java:38)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.NodeTestTask.lambda$executeRecursively$5(NodeTestTask.java:143)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.ThrowableCollector.execute(ThrowableCollector.java:73)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.NodeTestTask.lambda$executeRecursively$7(NodeTestTask.java:129)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.Node.around(Node.java:137)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.NodeTestTask.lambda$executeRecursively$8(NodeTestTask.java:127)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.ThrowableCollector.execute(ThrowableCollector.java:73)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.NodeTestTask.executeRecursively(NodeTestTask.java:126)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.NodeTestTask.execute(NodeTestTask.java:84)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.SameThreadHierarchicalTestExecutorService.submit(SameThreadHierarchicalTestExecutorService.java:32)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestExecutor.execute(HierarchicalTestExecutor.java:57)
at org.junit.platform.engine.support.hierarchical.HierarchicalTestEngine.execute(HierarchicalTestEngine.java:51)
at org.junit.platform.launcher.core.EngineExecutionOrchestrator.execute(EngineExecutionOrchestrator.java:108)
at org.junit.platform.launcher.core.EngineExecutionOrchestrator.execute(EngineExecutionOrchestrator.java:88)
at org.junit.platform.launcher.core.EngineExecutionOrchestrator.lambda$execute$0(EngineExecutionOrchestrator.java:54)
at org.junit.platform.launcher.core.EngineExecutionOrchestrator.withInterceptedStreams(EngineExecutionOrchestrator.java:67)
at org.junit.platform.launcher.core.EngineExecutionOrchestrator.execute(EngineExecutionOrchestrator.java:52)
at org.junit.platform.launcher.core.DefaultLauncher.execute(DefaultLauncher.java:96)
at org.junit.platform.launcher.core.DefaultLauncher.execute(DefaultLauncher.java:75)
at com.intellij.junit5.JUnit5IdeaTestRunner.startRunnerWithArgs(JUnit5IdeaTestRunner.java:69)
at com.intellij.rt.execution.junit.IdeaTestRunner$Repeater.startRunnerWithArgs(IdeaTestRunner.java:47)
at com.intellij.rt.execution.junit.JUnitStarter.prepareStreamsAndStart(JUnitStarter.java:242)
at com.intellij.rt.execution.junit.JUnitStarter.main(JUnitStarter.java:70)

Answer 1

As per suggestion from Mr. Kuhn, this works:

assertEquals("2022-11-30", getReformatDateMethod().invoke(myService, testDate));