Spring Framework's dependency injection internals — specifically from the process where Spring tries to resolve a candidate bean to inject into a dependency marked with @Autowired
.
Here's a breakdown of what this line does:
✅ Context
-
descriptor
: an instance ofDependencyDescriptor
, representing the injection point (e.g. a field or constructor parameter that needs a bean). -
resolveCandidate(...)
: a method that attempts to find a suitable bean in the application context to satisfy the injection point. -
autowiredBeanName
: the name of the bean to be injected, if known. -
type
: the required type of the bean to inject (e.g.,MyService.class
). -
this
: the currentBeanFactory
(likely aDefaultListableBeanFactory
) used to resolve the dependency.
🔍 What Happens in resolveCandidate(...)
This method:
-
Checks the type of bean required.
-
Looks in the application context for a bean with a matching type and name.
-
If multiple beans match, Spring applies priority annotations like
@Primary
or@Qualifier
. -
If a match is found, it returns the actual bean instance (or a reference to it).
🛠 Example
Let's say you have:
@Autowired private MyService myService;
Spring creates a DependencyDescriptor
for that field. During bean creation, it tries to resolve it like:
Object instanceCandidate = descriptor.resolveCandidate("myService", MyService.class, beanFactory);
If a matching MyService
bean is found, instanceCandidate
will be assigned that bean.
🧠 Common Issues
-
NoSuchBeanDefinitionException: if no matching bean is found.
-
NoUniqueBeanDefinitionException: if multiple candidates are found without disambiguation (
@Primary
,@Qualifier
, etc). -
CircularDependencyException: if the candidate depends on the bean currently being created.
If you're debugging or customizing Spring DI behavior, this method is key to understanding how dependencies get resolved.