The right way(tm) of writing toString() (Was: Re: [PATCH] Field position attribute handling)

[Dalibor Topic]

Hi Mark,

Mark Wielaard wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Sun, 2003-11-23 at 21:40, Dalibor Topic wrote:
>
>
> > 2003-11-23  Dalibor Topic <address@hidden>
> >
> >         * java/text/FieldPosition.java (equals): Fixed comment.
>
>
> Looks fine. Please check it in.
>
>
> > > It would be nice if we had something about the right way (tm) of writing
> > > the standard clone(), toString(), hashCode() and equals() in the Hackers
> > > Guide. (hint...)
> >
> > I see. I'll try to come up with something based on what I've seen on the 
> > web and Bloch's book.

here's my attempt at writing a short passage on the Art of Writing 
toString methods. As everyone has written bazillions of them, it's a 
perfect subject for bikeshed type of discussions. Feel free to chip in 
with your own bits of wisdom ;)

a) toString output should begin with the name of the class

  Rationale: When a field is declared as having an interface type, or a 
non-final class, it is useful to know the exact type of the instance.

b) the rest of the string should be braced in '[' and ']'

  Rationale: Visual separation makes it easier to separate the output 
string into its type information and information about the state of the 
particular instance.

c) different instances should have different string representations

  Rationale: If two instances are not equal, then their string 
represenation should reflect that. The contents of all fields used in 
equals() should be part of the string representation of an instance.

d) fields that are used in the string representation must be named

  Rationale: Explicitely naming fields removes ambiguities when a class 
contains several fields of the same type.

e) use '+' to concatenate strings and objects

  Rationale: Most Java compilers can optimize string concatenation by 
using string buffers. There is no need to do that task by hand. Using 
'+' allows you to write simpler code.

f) don't use toString() on non-primitive fields. Use "field_name=" + 
field instead.

  Rationale: Calling toString() can fail if a field's instance in null, 
resulting in a NullPointerException being thrown inside toString(). 
Since toString() is usually used to provide debugging information, it 
must not fail. Using '+' as explained above lets the compiler do the job 
of calling StringBuffer.append(Object) or String.valueOf(Object), that 
both can handle null automativally.

g) don't write special code to handle fields being null

  Rationale: follows from f).

Example code:

public class Test{
  private String field_1;
  private int field_2;

  public String toString() {
    return ("Test
            + "[field_1=" + field_1
            + ", field_2=" + field_2
            + ']');
  }
}

comments are welcome, as usual.

cheers,
dalibor topic

p.s. if performace of toString() doesn't matter that much, and we can 
use reflection, it would be quite simple to write a 
gnu/classpath/ToString class with a stringize method that could 
automatically create string representations conforming to above rules, 
given the interesting fields of a class.

it basically comes down to:
stringize(Field [] fields)
getClass().getName()
+ '['
+ ( for all f in fields : f.getName().toLower() + '=' + f.get()  + 
separator(", "), if necessary)

Is there some interest in that?