Clojure: How to find out the arity of function at runtime?

Given a function object or name, how can I determine its arity? Something like (arity func-name) .

I hope there is a way, since arity is pretty central in Clojure

The arity of a function is stored in the metadata of the var.

(:arglists (meta #'str))
;([] [x] [x & ys])

This requires that the function was either defined using defn, or the :arglists metadata supplied explicitly.

Sneaky reflection:

(defn arg-count [f]
  (let [m (first (.getDeclaredMethods (class f)))        p (.getParameterTypes m)]
    (alength p)))

Or :

(defn arg-count [f]
  {:pre [(instance? clojure.lang.AFunction f)]}
  (-> f class .getDeclaredMethods first .getParameterTypes alength))

Building on @whocaresanyway's solution:

(defn provided
  [cond fun x]
  (if cond
    (fun x)
    x))

(defn append
  [xs x]
  (conj (vec xs) x))

(defn arity-of-method
  [method]
  (->> method .getParameterTypes alength))

(defn arities
  [fun]
  (let [all-declared-methods (.getDeclaredMethods (class fun))
        methods-named (fn [name]
                        (filter #(= (.getName %) name) all-declared-methods))
        methods-named-invoke (methods-named "invoke")
        methods-named-do-invoke (methods-named "doInvoke")
        is-rest-fn (seq methods-named-do-invoke)]
    (->> methods-named-invoke
         (map arity-of-method)
         sort
         (provided is-rest-fn
                   (fn [v] (append v :rest))))))

My heart bled (covered all the cases).

(defn arity
  "Returns the maximum arity of:
    - anonymous functions like `#()` and `(fn [])`.
    - defined functions like `map` or `+`.
    - macros, by passing a var like `#'->`.
  
  Returns `:variadic` if the function/macro is variadic."
  [f]
  (let [func (if (var? f) @f f)
        methods (->> func class .getDeclaredMethods
                     (map #(vector (.getName %)
                                   (count (.getParameterTypes %)))))
        var-args? (some #(-> % first #{"getRequiredArity"})
                        methods)]
    (if var-args?
      :variadic
      (let [max-arity (->> methods
                           (filter (comp #{"invoke"} first))
                           (sort-by second)
                           last
                           second)]
        (if (and (var? f) (-> f meta :macro))
          (- max-arity 2) ;; substract implicit &form and &env arguments
          max-arity)))))

(use 'clojure.test)

(defmacro m ([a]) ([a b]))
(defmacro mx [])
  
(deftest test-arity
  (testing "with an anonymous #(… %1) function"
    (is (= 1           (arity #(+ % 32))))
    (is (= 1           (arity #(+ %1 32))))
    (is (= 2           (arity #(+ %1 %2))))
    (is (= 13          (arity #(+ %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9 %10 %11 %12 %13))))
    (is (= :variadic   (arity #(apply + %&))))
    (is (= :variadic   (arity #(apply + % %&)))))
  (testing "with an anonymous (fn [] …) function"
    (testing "single body"
      (is (= 0         (arity (fn []))))
      (is (= 1         (arity (fn [a]))))
      (is (= 2         (arity (fn [a b]))))
      (is (= 20        (arity (fn [a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t]))))
      (is (= :variadic (arity (fn [a b & more])))))
    (testing "multiple bodies"
      (is (= 0         (arity (fn ([])))))
      (is (= 1         (arity (fn ([a])))))
      (is (= 2         (arity (fn ([a]) ([a b])))))
      (is (= :variadic (arity (fn ([a]) ([a b & c])))))))
  (testing "with a defined function"
    (is (= :variadic   (arity map)))
    (is (= :variadic   (arity +)))
    (is (= 1           (arity inc))))
  (testing "with a var to a macro"
    (is (= :variadic   (arity #'->)))
    (is (= 2           (arity #'m)))
    (is (= 0           (arity #'mx)))))

(run-tests)

Actually it also works on macros:

(defn arg-count [f]
  (let [m (first (.getDeclaredMethods (class f)))
        p (.getParameterTypes m)]
    (alength p)))

(defmacro my-macro [])

(arg-count @#'my-macro)
; 2

Why 2? Because every macro has two implicit arguments &form and &env respectively.

My take at the arity problem, building on the other solutions:

(defn arity
 "Returns the maximum parameter count of each invoke method found by refletion
  on the input instance. The returned value can be then interpreted as the arity
  of the input function. The count does NOT detect variadic functions."
  [f]
  (let [invokes (filter #(= "invoke" (.getName %1)) (.getDeclaredMethods (class f)))]
  (apply max (map #(alength (.getParameterTypes %1)) invokes))))

user=> (defn test-func
         ([p1] "Arity was 1.")
         ([p1 p2] "Arity was 2.")
         ([p1 p2 & more-args] (str "Arity was " (+ 2 (count more-args)))))
#'user/test-func
user=> (test-func 1)
"Arity was 1."
user=> (test-func 1 2)
"Arity was 2."
user=> (test-func 1 2 3)
"Arity was 3"
user=> (test-func 1 2 3 4)
"Arity was 4"
user=> (test-func 1 2 3 4 5) ;...
"Arity was 5"