JVM, Class Files, and the CLEmitter - Introduction to Compiler Construction in a Java World - page 329

D.5.3 Method Instructions

Mnemonic Operation Operand Stack

invokevirtual Invoke instance method;
dispatch based on class

;objectref; [arg1; [arg2]] )

invokeinterface Invoke interface method ;objectref; [arg1; [arg2]] )
invokespecial Invoke instance method;
special handling for su-
perclass, private, and
instance initialization
method invocations

;objectref; [arg1; [arg2]] )

invokestatic Invoke a class (static) ; [arg1; [arg2]] )

method

invokedynamic Invoke instance method;
dispatch based on class

;objectref; [arg1; [arg2]] )

The above instructions can be added to the code section of a method by sending the
CLEmitter instance the following message:

publicvoidaddMemberAccessInstruction(intopcode,
Stringtarget,
Stringname,
Stringtype)

where opcode is the mnemonic of the instruction to be added, target is the name (in
internal form) of the class to which the method belongs, name is the name of the method,
and type is the type descriptor of the method.

Mnemonic Operation Operand Stack

ireturn Return int from method ;value ) [empty]
lreturn Return long from method ;value ) [empty]
freturn Return float from
method

;value ) [empty]

dreturn Return double from
method

;value ) [empty]

areturn Return

reference from ;objectref ) [empty]

method

return Return void from method ) [empty]

The above instructions can be added to the code section of a method by sending the
CLEmitter instance the following message:

publicvoidaddNoArgInstruction(intopcode)

where opcode is the mnemonic of the instruction to be added.