Java Properties¶

Basic definition¶

The Properties class represents a persistent set of String pairs in Map representation ("Key" -> "Value"). It can write those pairs to a disk and read them back to String or Stream. This class is used for storing configs for applications. If you are familiar with Linux or macOS (less likely, but I hope you are, and on Windows - dunno) operating system you probably edited some configuration files.

Usage¶

Setting Properties¶

To set properties instance we use the setProperty(String key, String value) It calls the Hashtable method put and enforces use of strings for property keys and values. The value returned is the result of the Hashtable call to put.

The construction of this metod should look like this:

class Properties extends Hashtable<Object,Object> {
    // ...
    public synchronized Object setProperty(String key, String value) {
        return put(key, value);
    }
    // ...
}

A you see, it uses synchronised keyword, which provides support for parallelism with getProperty method (it is synchronised too) Let see how it works on the example:

Setting PropertiesOutput

package collections.properties;
import java.util.Properties;

public class SetProperties {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Properties properties  = new Properties();
        // set petting property
        properties.setProperty("window-manager", "i3-gaps");
        properties.setProperty("os", "nixOS");
        properties.setProperty("user", "andy");

        // iterating over key and value of every property
        properties.forEach(
            (key, value) -> System.out.println(key + " : " + value));
        properties.setProperty("group", "wheel");
        // will return value, because key exists
        System.out.println(
            "print::properties.setProperty():" + 
            properties.setProperty("group", "wheel"));
        System.out.println();
        properties.forEach(
            (key, value) -> System.out.println(key + " : " + value));
    }
}

os : nixOS
window-manager : i3-gaps
user : andy
print::properties.setProperty():wheel

os : nixOS
window-manager : i3-gaps
user : andy
group : wheel

Warning

Because Properties inherits from Hashtable, the put and putAll methods can be applied to a Properties object. Their use is strongly discouraged as they allow the caller to insert entries whose keys or values are not Strings. The setProperty method should be used instead. If the store or save method is called on a "compromised" Properties object that contains a non-String key or value, the call will fail.

This is an example of breaking Liskov Substitution Principle. They should use composition instead inheritance, but idk, too late I guess.

Here is an example that points out this bad design decision:

Properties BreakOutput

    package collections.properties;  
    import java.util.Properties;

    public class BreakProperties {
        public static void main(String[] args) {
            Properties properties = new Properties();
            properties.put("KeyStringValNot", 2);
            System.out.println(properties.getProperty("KeyStringValNot")); 
            System.out.println(properties.get("KeyStringValNot"));
        }
    }

null
2  

Storing Properties¶

You can store the property key and value pairs to a file via store() method.

package collections.properties;

import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Properties;

public class StoreProperties {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        Properties prop = new Properties();
        prop.setProperty("newkey1", "newvalue1");
        prop.setProperty("newkey2", "newvalue2");
        prop .store(new FileOutputStream(
                "./src/collections/properties/properties.conf"), null);

        // Store as XML
        prop = new Properties();
        prop.setProperty("1st", "first");
        prop.setProperty("2nd", "second");
        prop.storeToXML(new FileOutputStream(
            "./src/collections/properties/properties.xml"), null);
    }
}

Content of properties.conf is:

#Thu Oct 28 23:10:51 CEST 2021
newkey1=newvalue1
newkey2=newvalue2

And properties.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE properties SYSTEM "http://java.sun.com/dtd/properties.dtd">
<properties>
<entry key="1st">first</entry>
<entry key="2nd">second</entry>
</properties>

Loading Properties¶

Loading PropertiesOutput

package collections.properties;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.util.Properties;

public class LoadProperties {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        Properties properties = new Properties();
        // will load a properties file located in the same package as
        // the class LoadProperties.
        InputStream in = LoadProperties
                .class
                .getResourceAsStream("properties.conf");
        properties.load(in);
        properties
                .forEach((k, v) -> System.out.println(k +  " -> " + v));

        System.out.println("XML Properties");
        in  = LoadProperties
                .class
                .getResourceAsStream("properties.xml");
        properties = new Properties();
        properties.loadFromXML(in);
        properties.forEach((key, value) -> System.out.println(
                key +" -> "+ value));
    }
}

newkey1 -> newvalue1
newkey2 -> newvalue2
XML Properties
1st -> first
2nd -> second

Default Properties¶

There are two ways to provide default value for properties:

With using Properties constructor which accepts another Properties object as a parameter: Properties(Properties defaults):

Defaults ConstructorOutput

Properties defauts = new Properties();  
defauts.setProperty("os", "ArchLinux");  
defauts.setProperty("user", "root");  
// printing defaults:  
System.out.println("defaults:");  
defauts.forEach(  
 (key, value) -> System.out.println(key + " : " + value)  
 );  
// providing defaults with constructor  
Properties props = new Properties(defauts);  
// props.setProperty("environment", "i3-gaps");  
// printing props  
System.out.println("props:");  
props.forEach((key, val) -> System.out.println(key + " : " + val));  
System.out.println("props.getProperty(\"os\") = " 
   + props.getProperty("os"));

defaults:
os : ArchLinux
user : root
props:
props.getProperty("os") = ArchLinux

As you see, after setting default properties you can't just browse through them. There is no method in Properties class that will show you default values for keys. I am not a master of the good design, but this thing looks awful, because a client might want ask: "Hmm, I wonder what are defaults of this app?", and the answer is well... there is no answer.

By providing default value with using method parameter: getProperty(String key, String defaultValue) If value for key does not exist, method returns defaultValue String.

Default Method ParameterOutput

Properties props2 = new Properties();
String defaultJedi = props2.getProperty("jedi", "Obi-Wan Kenobi");
System.out.println("defaultJedi = " + defaultJedi);

1	`defaultJedi = Obi-Wan Kenobi`