3.3.2 LocalVariableTable Attribute

The LocalVariableTable is an optional attribute of a method's Code attribute.

It may be used by debuggers to determine the value of a given local variable during the execution of a method. There may be more than one LocalVariableTable attributes in the Code attribute, but each local variable can be mentioned in at most one. The order of LocalVariableTable attributes is unspecified.

The structure of each entry in the local variable table is the following:

• start_pc, length - the begining and length of the code fragment, where the given local variable has a meaningful value
• name reference - index in the constant pool, where the variable name is stored
• descriptor - index in the constant pool, where the variable type is stored (as a field description)
• index - index of the local variable array

The precise description of this attribute is given in Section 4.7.9 of The Java Virtual Machine Specification [Lindholm-Yellin].