Java Reflection: Why is it so slow?

Question

I\'ve always avoided Java reflection soley based on its reputation for slowness. I reached a point in the design of my current project where being able to use it would make

Answer 1

• Reflection was very slow when first introduced, but has been sped up considerably in newer JREs
• Still, it might not be a good idea to use reflection in an inner loop
• Reflection-based code has low potential for JIT-based optimizations
• Reflection is mostly used in connecting loosely-coupled components, i.e. in looking up concrete classes and methods, where only interfaces are known: dependeny-injection frameworks, instantiating JDBC implementation classes or XML parsers. These uses can often be done once at system startup, so the small inefficiency don't matter anyway!