Develop Reference

Writing a method to return the string inside an object in Java

I'm really new to Java and programming in general (~3 weeks of experience) so sorry if this question is obvious for you guys. I tried searching for answers here but couldn't find any that fit my specific problem. And yeah it's for school, I'm not trying to hide it.
Here I'm supposed to write an object method that returns the string contained in the object oj, in reverse. I do know how to print a string in reverse, but I don't know how I should call the object since the method isn't supposed to have any parameters.
import java.util.Random;
public class Oma{
public static void main(String[] args){
final Random r = new Random();
final String[] v = "sininen punainen keltainen musta harmaa valkoinen purppura oranssi ruskea".split(" ");
final String[] e = "etana koira kissa possu sika marsu mursu hamsteri koala kenguru papukaija".split(" ");
OmaMerkkijono oj = new OmaMerkkijono(v[r.nextInt(v.length)] + " " + e[r.nextInt(e.length)]);
String reve = oj.printreverse();
System.out.println(reve);
}
}
class OmaMerkkijono{
private String jono;
public OmaMerkkijono(String jono){
this.jono=jono;
}
public String printreverse(){
//so here is my problem, i tried calling the object in different ways
//but none of them worked
return reversedstringthatdoesnotexist;
}
}

You just need to add this to your "printreverse" method :
new StringBuilder(this.jono).reverse().toString()
With this, when you call the method with the object "oj":
String reve = oj.printreverse();
After the previous line, "reve" must contain the value of the String reversed.
Olet hyvä, moi moi!

To revers a String use StringBuilder and reverse()
public String printreverse(){
return new StringBuilder(jono).reverse().toString();
}

To access private attributes from outside the class you use what are called accessors and mutators, aka getters and setters.

You just need a basic getter that also reverses the string.
public class MyObject {
private String objectName;
MyObject(String objectName) {
this.objectName = objectName;
}
public String getObjectName() {
return objectName; // returns objectName in order
}
public String getReversedObjectName() {
return new StringBuilder(objectName).reverse().toString();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
MyObject teslaRoadster = new MyObject("Telsa Roadster");
System.out.println(teslaRoadster.getObjectName());
System.out.println(teslaRoadster.getReversedObjectName());
}
}
Output:
Telsa Roadster
retsdaoR asleT

Proper Constructors to Run all Methods in Java

I have this class and need to know which constructor is needed to create an object that may immediately use all its methods without error
public class Robot {
private boolean fuelEmpty = true;
private int roboID;
private String greeting;
private String securityProtocol;
//insert robot constructor here
public void destroyAllHumans(){
while (fuelEmpty == false) {
//robot begins to destroy all humans
}
}
public int getRoboID(){
return roboID;
}
public void greet(){
System.out.println(greeting);
}
public void setSecurityProtocol(String proto){
securityProtocol = proto;
}
}
For example should look like this:
public Robot(int id, String greet) {
roboID = id;
greeting = greet;
}
or this:
public Robot(int id, String greet) {
roboID = id;
greeting = greet;
fuelEmpty = false;
}
or:
public Robot(boolean full, int id, String greet, String proto) {
roboID = id;
greeting = greet;
fuelEmpty = full;
securityProtocol = proto;
}
Which of these (or something else different) is needed so that all the other methods can run without an error?

You can overload the constructor as much as you need, the important thing is
the object gets properly instantiated after you create a new one...
a way can be:
public Robot() {
this(false, 0, "", "");
}
public Robot(int id) {
this(false, id, "", "");
}
public Robot(boolean fuelEmpty, int roboID, String greeting, String securityProtocol) {
this.fuelEmpty = fuelEmpty;
this.roboID = roboID;
this.greeting = greeting;
this.securityProtocol = securityProtocol;
}
so look how all other constructors will at the end call internally the
public Robot(boolean fuelEmpty, int roboID, String greeting, String securityProtocol)
that will give you the waranty that no matter which constructor is invoked, the Robot is fully created and can invoke all those methods without crashing

The solution works like this:
you look at each of your methods
you check which fields each method is using
you check more closely, if the method breaks when that field has its default value (like null for Objects, or false for booleans)
When you do that for all methods, you get a list of those fields that you need to initialize somehow. Then you could go forward and define a corresponding constructor.
But of course, that is the wrong approach.
The real answer goes like this: you don't put fields into a class because you can. You add them because they are required so that this class can implement the requirements (responsibilities) that you want it to implement. Meaning: you focus on the methods that your class should provide. Then you clarify which fields you need in order to implement these methods.
In other words: you have exactly those fields in your class that your class needs. If you have fields in there that go unused - then you get rid of them.

Editing a complex Java object in a Tapestry 5 web application

I am using Tapestry 5.3.6 for a web application and I want the user to edit an instance of a Java class (a "bean", or POJO) using a web form (which immediately suggests the use of beaneditform) - however the Java class to be edited has a fairly complex structure. I am looking for the simplest way of doing this in Tapestry 5.
Firstly, lets define some utility classes e.g.
public class ModelObject {
private URI uri;
private boolean modified;
// the usual constructors, getters and setters ...
}
public class Literal<T> extends ModelObject {
private Class<?> valueClass;
private T value;
public Literal(Class<?> valueClass) {
this.valueClass = valueClass;
}
public Literal(Class<?> valueClass, T value) {
this.valueClass = valueClass;
this.value = value;
}
// the usual getters and setters ...
}
public class Link<T extends ModelObject> extends ModelObject {
private Class<?> targetClass;
private T target;
public Link(Class<?> targetClass) {
this.targetClass = targetClass;
}
public Link(Class<?> targetClass, T target) {
this.targetClass = targetClass;
this.target = target;
}
// the usual getters and setters ...
}
Now you can create some fairly complex data structures, for example:
public class HumanBeing extends ModelObject {
private Literal<String> name;
// ... other stuff
public HumanBeing() {
name = new Literal<String>(String.class);
}
// the usual getters and setters ...
}
public class Project extends ModelObject {
private Literal<String> projectName;
private Literal<Date> startDate;
private Literal<Date> endDate;
private Literal<Integer> someCounter;
private Link<HumanBeing> projectLeader;
private Link<HumanBeing> projectManager;
// ... other stuff, including lists of things, that may be Literals or
// Links ... e.g. (ModelObjectList is an enhanced ArrayList that remembers
// the type(s) of the objects it contains - to get around type erasure ...
private ModelObjectList<Link<HumanBeing>> projectMembers;
private ModelObjectList<Link<Project>> relatedProjects;
private ModelObjectList<Literal<String>> projectAliases;
// the usual constructors, getters and setters for all of the above ...
public Project() {
projectName = new Literal<String>(String.class);
startDate = new Literal<Date>(Date.class);
endDate = new Literal<Date>(Date.class);
someCounter = new Literal<Integer>(Integer.class);
projectLeader = new Link<HumanBeing>(HumanBeing.class);
projectManager = new Link<HumanBeing>(HumanBeing.class);
projectMembers = new ModelObjectList<Link<HumanBeing>>(Link.class, HumanBeing.class);
// ... more ...
}
}
If you point beaneditform at an instance of Project.class, you will not get very far before you have to supply a lot of custom coercers, translators, valueencoders, etc - and then you still run into the problem that you can't use generics when "contributing" said coercers, translators, valueencoders, etc.
I then started writing my own components to get around these problems (e.g. ModelObjectDisplay and ModelObjectEdit) but this would require me to understand a lot more of the guts of Tapestry than I have time to learn ... it feels like I might be able to do what I want using the standard components and liberal use of "delegate" etc. Can anyone see a simple path for me to take with this?
Thanks for reading this far.
PS: if you are wondering why I have done things like this, it is because the model represents linked data from an RDF graph database (aka triple-store) - I need to remember the URI of every bit of data and how it relates (links) to other bits of data (you are welcome to suggest better ways of doing this too :-)
EDIT:
#uklance suggested using display and edit blocks - here is what I had already tried:
Firstly, I had the following in AppPropertyDisplayBlocks.tml ...
<t:block id="literal">
<t:delegate to="literalType" t:value="literalValue" />
</t:block>
<t:block id="link">
<t:delegate to="linkType" t:value="linkValue" />
</t:block>
and in AppPropertyDisplayBlocks.java ...
public Block getLiteralType() {
Literal<?> literal = (Literal<?>) context.getPropertyValue();
Class<?> valueClass = literal.getValueClass();
if (!AppModule.modelTypes.containsKey(valueClass))
return null;
String blockId = AppModule.modelTypes.get(valueClass);
return resources.getBlock(blockId);
}
public Object getLiteralValue() {
Literal<?> literal = (Literal<?>) context.getPropertyValue();
return literal.getValue();
}
public Block getLinkType() {
Link<?> link = (Link<?>) context.getPropertyValue();
Class<?> targetClass = link.getTargetClass();
if (!AppModule.modelTypes.containsKey(targetClass))
return null;
String blockId = AppModule.modelTypes.get(targetClass);
return resources.getBlock(blockId);
}
public Object getLinkValue() {
Link<?> link = (Link<?>) context.getPropertyValue();
return link.getTarget();
}
AppModule.modelTypes is a map from java class to a String to be used by Tapestry e.g. Link.class -> "link" and Literal.class -> "literal" ... in AppModule I had the following code ...
public static void contributeDefaultDataTypeAnalyzer(
MappedConfiguration<Class<?>, String> configuration) {
for (Class<?> type : modelTypes.keySet()) {
String name = modelTypes.get(type);
configuration.add(type, name);
}
}
public static void contributeBeanBlockSource(
Configuration<BeanBlockContribution> configuration) {
// using HashSet removes duplicates ...
for (String name : new HashSet<String>(modelTypes.values())) {
configuration.add(new DisplayBlockContribution(name,
"blocks/AppPropertyDisplayBlocks", name));
configuration.add(new EditBlockContribution(name,
"blocks/AppPropertyEditBlocks", name));
}
}
I had similar code for the edit blocks ... however none of this seemed to work - I think because the original object was passed to the "delegate" rather than the de-referenced object which was either the value stored in the literal or the object the link pointed to (hmm... should be [Ll]inkTarget in the above, not [Ll]inkValue). I also kept running into errors where Tapestry couldn't find a suitable "translator", "valueencoder" or "coercer" ... I am under some time pressure so it is difficult to follow these twisty passages through in order to get out of the maze :-)

I would suggest to build a thin wrapper around the Objects you would like to edit though the BeanEditForm and pass those into it. So something like:
public class TapestryProject {
private Project project;
public TapestryProject(Project proj){
this.project = proj;
}
public String getName(){
this.project.getProjectName().getValue();
}
public void setName(String name){
this.project.getProjectName().setValue(name);
}
etc...
}
This way tapestry will deal with all the types it knows about leaving you free of having to create your own coersions (which is quite simple in itself by the way).

You can contribute blocks to display and edit your "link" and "literal" datatypes.
The beaneditform, beaneditor and beandisplay are backed by the BeanBlockSource service. BeanBlockSource is responsible for providing display and edit blocks for various datatypes.
If you download the tapestry source code and have a look at the following files:
tapestry-core\src\main\java\org\apache\tapestry5\corelib\pages\PropertyEditBlocks.java
tapestry-core\src\main\resources\org\apache\tapestry5\corelib\pages\PropertyEditBlocks.tml
tapestry-core\src\main\java\org\apache\tapestry5\services\TapestryModule.java
You will see how tapestry contributes EditBlockContribution and DisplayBlockContribution to provide default blocks (eg for a "date" datatype).
If you contribute to BeanBlockSource, you could provide display and edit blocks for your custom datatypes. This will require you reference blocks by id in a page. The page can be hidden from your users by annotating it with #WhitelistAccessOnly.
http://tapestry.apache.org/current/apidocs/org/apache/tapestry5/services/BeanBlockSource.html
http://tapestry.apache.org/current/apidocs/org/apache/tapestry5/services/DisplayBlockContribution.html
http://tapestry.apache.org/current/apidocs/org/apache/tapestry5/services/EditBlockContribution.html
http://tapestry.apache.org/current/apidocs/org/apache/tapestry5/annotations/WhitelistAccessOnly.html

Here's an example of using an interface and a proxy to hide the implementation details from your model. Note how the proxy takes care of updating the modified flag and is able to map URI's from the Literal array to properties in the HumanBeing interface.
package com.github.uklance.triplestore;
import java.lang.reflect.InvocationHandler;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;
import java.lang.reflect.Proxy;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import org.junit.Test;
public class TripleStoreOrmTest {
public static class Literal<T> {
public String uri;
public boolean modified;
public Class<T> type;
public T value;
public Literal(String uri, Class<T> type, T value) {
super();
this.uri = uri;
this.type = type;
this.value = value;
}
#Override
public String toString() {
return "Literal [uri=" + uri + ", type=" + type + ", value=" + value + ", modified=" + modified + "]";
}
}
public interface HumanBeing {
public String getName();
public void setName(String name);
public int getAge();
public void setAge();
}
public interface TripleStoreProxy {
public Map<String, Literal<?>> getLiteralMap();
}
#Test
public void testMockTripleStore() {
Literal<?>[] literals = {
new Literal<String>("http://humanBeing/1/Name", String.class, "Henry"),
new Literal<Integer>("http://humanBeing/1/Age", Integer.class, 21)
};
System.out.println("Before " + Arrays.asList(literals));
HumanBeing humanBeingProxy = createProxy(literals, HumanBeing.class);
System.out.println("Before Name: " + humanBeingProxy.getName());
System.out.println("Before Age: " + humanBeingProxy.getAge());
humanBeingProxy.setName("Adam");
System.out.println("After Name: " + humanBeingProxy.getName());
System.out.println("After Age: " + humanBeingProxy.getAge());
Map<String, Literal<?>> literalMap = ((TripleStoreProxy) humanBeingProxy).getLiteralMap();
System.out.println("After " + literalMap);
}
protected <T> T createProxy(Literal<?>[] literals, Class<T> type) {
Class<?>[] proxyInterfaces = { type, TripleStoreProxy.class };
final Map<String, Literal> literalMap = new HashMap<String, Literal>();
for (Literal<?> literal : literals) {
String name = literal.uri.substring(literal.uri.lastIndexOf("/") + 1);
literalMap.put(name, literal);
}
InvocationHandler handler = new InvocationHandler() {
public Object invoke(Object proxy, Method method, Object[] args) throws Throwable {
if (method.getDeclaringClass().equals(TripleStoreProxy.class)) {
return literalMap;
}
if (method.getName().startsWith("get")) {
String name = method.getName().substring(3);
return literalMap.get(name).value;
} else if (method.getName().startsWith("set")) {
String name = method.getName().substring(3);
Literal<Object> literal = literalMap.get(name);
literal.value = args[0];
literal.modified = true;
}
return null;
}
};
return type.cast(Proxy.newProxyInstance(getClass().getClassLoader(), proxyInterfaces, handler));
}
}

How to print all enum values in Java?

enum generalInformation {
NAME {
#Override
public String toString() {
return "Name";
}
},
EDUCATION {
#Override
public String toString() {
return "Education";
}
},
EMAIL {
#Override
public String toString() {
return "Email";
}
},
PROFESSION {
#Override
public String toString() {
return "Profession";
}
},
PHONE {
#Override
public String toString() {
return "Phone";
}
}
}
I have that information are avaiable in enum.
How to print all enum values like: print.generalInformation?
That outputs:
Name
Education
Email
Phone
How to pass that enum generalInformation as an arg in another function?

System.out.println(java.util.Arrays.asList(generalInformation.values()));
Your second part... Just the same as an interface or a class

Firstly, I would refactor your enum to pass the string representation in a constructor parameter. That code is at the bottom.
Now, to print all enum values you'd just use something like:
// Note: enum name changed to comply with Java naming conventions
for (GeneralInformation info : EnumSet.allOf(GeneralInformation.class)) {
System.out.println(info);
}
An alternative to using EnumSet would be to use GeneralInformation.values(), but that means you have to create a new array each time you call it, which feels wasteful to me. Admittedly calling EnumSet.allOf requires a new object each time too... if you're doing this a lot and are concerned about the performance, you could always cache it somewhere.
You can use GeneralInformation just like any other type when it comes to parameters:
public void doSomething(GeneralInformation info) {
// Whatever
}
Called with a value, e.g.
doSomething(GeneralInformation.PHONE);
Refactoring using a constructor parameter
public enum GeneralInformation {
NAME("Name"),
EDUCATION("Education"),
EMAIL("Email"),
PROFESSION("Profession"),
PHONE("Phone");
private final String textRepresentation;
private GeneralInformation(String textRepresentation) {
this.textRepresentation = textRepresentation;
}
#Override public String toString() {
return textRepresentation;
}
}
With your current values, you could actually just convert the name to title case automatically - but that wouldn't be very flexible for the long term, and I think this explicit version is simpler.

Since Java 8 I would suggest the following solution:
public static String printAll() {
return Stream.of(GeneralInformation.values()).
map(GeneralInformation::name).
collect(Collectors.joining(", "));
}

In applications, it's good practice to separate data from presentation. It allows the data to be used in different user interfaces, it makes the data objects more lightweight, and it allows for the future possibility of internationalization.
With that in mind, it's good to avoid strongly coupling the display name to the enum constant. Fortunately, there is a class which makes this easy: EnumMap.
public class ApplicationUI {
private final Map<GeneralInformation, String> names;
public ApplicationUI() {
names = new EnumMap<>(GeneralInformation.class);
names.put(GeneralInformation.NAME, "Name");
names.put(GeneralInformation.EDUCATION, "Education");
names.put(GeneralInformation.EMAIL, "Email");
names.put(GeneralInformation.PROFESSION, "Profession");
names.put(GeneralInformation.PHONE, "Phone");
assert names.keySet().containsAll(
EnumSet.allOf(GeneralInformation.class)) :
"Forgot to add one or more GeneralInformation names";
}
public String getNameFor(GeneralInformation info) {
return names.get(info);
}
}

If you are still on Java 1.7 this is what worked for me:
String genInfoValues = "";
boolean firstRun = true;
for (generalInformation info : generalInformation.values()){
if (firstRun) {
firstRun = false;
genInfoValues += info.name();
} else {
genInfoValues += ", " + info.name();
}
}

values() on the enum returns an array. So, it would be simple to do the following to:
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(generalInformation.values()));

Hashtable<String, Object> not finding strings

I have a Hashtable of type Hashtable
I've loaded several strings as keys, one of which is "ABCD"
However, later when I go to look up "ABCD", the Hashtable returns null instead of the associated object. Further the keyset contains "ABCD", but a request to containsKey("ABCD") returns false.
Is this because String objects are inherently different objects?
If so, what is the write way to store information in a Hashtable if I want to use Strings as keys?
public class Field {
private String name;
private DataType dataType;
public Field(String name, DataType dataType) {
this.name = name;
this.dataType = dataType;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public DataType getDataType() {
return dataType;
}
public String toString() {
return name;
}
}
public class Record {
private Hashtable<String, Data> content;
public Record(Field[] fieldList) {
this.fieldList = fieldList;
content = new Hashtable<String, Data>();
System.out.println(fieldList.length);
for(Field f : fieldList) {
content.put(f.getName(), new Data());
}
}
public void add(String field, String s) {
// ERROR OCCURS HERE IN THIS METHOD !!!
System.out.println(field);
for(String ss : content.keySet()) {
System.out.print(" [ " + ss + " ] ");
}
System.out.println();
System.out.println(content.containsKey(field));
System.out.println(content.get(field));
content.get(field).add(s);
}
}
public class Data {
private Vector<String> lines;
private int index;
public Data() {
lines = new Vector<String>();
index = 0;
}
public void add(String s) {
System.out.println("adding");
lines.add(s);
}
public String nextLine() {
try {
return lines.elementAt(index++);
} catch (ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException aioobe) {
return null;
}
}
}

Works for me!
import java.util.Hashtable;
public class StrMap {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Hashtable<String,Object> map = new Hashtable<String,Object>();
map.put("ABCD", "value");
System.err.println(map.containsKey("ABCD"));
}
}
Yo have probably made some other error. Reduce the problem to the smallest complete compilable program that still demonstrates the problem. You'll probably find the problem straight away. If you don't, at least you will have a question that we can answer.
(Also Map and HashMap is that way to go. Hashtable is useful if you are using a pre-Java 2 API (Java 2 is comfortably over a decade old now!).)

Hashtable is a Java 1.0 data structure. I wonder why you're not using a Map?
If java.lang.String is the key type, I'd say you're being hosed by something else that's impossible to guess without posting code.

It's hard to pinpoint the root cause without an SSCCE from your side.
At least, the common causes are:
You're not using the Hashtable you think you're using. System.out.println() it to verify.
The String is actually in a different case, e.g. "ABcD" instead of "ABCD".
The String is surrounded with some whitespace which you needs to trim() first.
That said (and unrelated to the actual problem), I strongly recommend to use the improved HashMap instead of the legacy Hashtable. Here's a Sun tutorial about maps.

Can you also post the exact output you get from the following method when field is "ABCD"?
public void add(String field, String s) {
// ERROR OCCURS HERE IN THIS METHOD !!!
System.out.println(field);
for(String ss : content.keySet()) {
System.out.print(" [ " + ss + " ] ");
}
System.out.println();
System.out.println(content.containsKey(field));
System.out.println(content.get(field));
content.get(field).add(s);
}