I'm not sure how .NET's reflection works, but it does have reflection, where you can say stuff like "tell me all of String's methods" and for each of those you can find out public vs private vs protected, final vs not, etc.

See http://download-llnw.oracle.com/javase/1.3/docs/api/java/lan...

Considering the history, don't you mean "Does .NET have something similar to Java's reflection?"

As a (mostly) .Net developer, I was curious, so I looked it up. Yes, you can use reflection in Java to invoke private methods and access private fields in much the same way you can in .Net

Or... Did the .NET/C# folks copy the reflection from Java or invented it themselves?