PublicMethodFilter

PublicMethodFilter is a filtering component used in reflection-based tooling to select methods that are publicly accessible from a type. It helps enumerate an API surface, drive documentation generation, or configure dynamic behavior at runtime.

A public method filter concentrates on visibility attributes and may expose additional options, such as whether to include static methods, inherited methods, or methods declared only in the type itself. Some implementations distinguish between instance and static methods, or between normal and synthetic or bridge methods produced by compilers. Depending on the design, the filter may be a simple predicate or a small class with configurable settings.

In Java, a typical filter inspects method modifiers, using facilities such as Modifier.isPublic(method.getModifiers()) or by checking that method.getDeclaringClass() corresponds to the target type. In C#, one would examine MethodInfo.IsPublic and related properties. Such a filter commonly feeds into collections retrieved via reflection, such as getMethods, getDeclaredMethods, or their equivalents, to produce the subset of methods that form the public API surface.

Uses include API surface analysis, reflection-based tooling, test discovery, and code generation. The concept is language-specific and is often implemented as a predicate or a lightweight filter object that accepts a method descriptor and returns a boolean.

Caveats include handling methods exposed by interfaces, inherited methods, and generic bridge methods. There can be performance considerations due to reflection, and filters are sometimes composed with other criteria to support more nuanced selections.