Frank, For me it wouldn't be any use unless it also handled DynaBeans. Even then I'd end up overriding it because I have some formatting utils which do dates, arrays and collections. Seems to me if we put it in then we would end up with a monster trying to satisy everyones needs and forever dealing with bugzilla requests for enhacements (someone would want an i18n version!) - all just for debugging.
The easiest thing is to just put all that code into a utility method - that way its only a one liner in the toString() - even better if you have your own "base" ActionForm that all you others derive from, then its only in one place. Also, there are a set of "toString" builders in commons lang which you might like to use - including a reflection one like yours: http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/lang/api/org/apache/commons/lang/builder/package-summary.html http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/lang/api/org/apache/commons/lang/builder/ReflectionToStringBuilder.html Niall ----- Original Message ----- From: "Frank W. Zammetti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Struts Developer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, October 07, 2004 4:29 AM Subject: Re: Proposed Action base class change > Obviously I made a typo in the subject... this applies to the ActionForm > base class. > > Did anyone have any comment on this? I've noticed a lack of activity on > the list lately... > > > Hello all... > > > > I find myself all the time overloading toString() of my ActionForms for debugging > > purposes, so I can easily dump the current state of the object. I had been doing > > this for each ActionForm class, specifically for it, but it ocurrs to me that a > > general-purpose reflection-based approach would be better. > > > > I'd like to propose adding this functionality to the ActionForm base class. Here's > > the code I propose adding: > > > > import java.lang.reflect.Field; > > public static final AVERAGE_FIELD_SIZE = 25; > > public String toString() { > > String str = ""; > > StringBuffer sb = null; > > try { > > Field[] fields = this.getClass().getDeclaredFields(); > > sb = new StringBuffer(fields.length * AVERAGE_FIELD_SIZE); > > for (int i = 0; i < fields.length; i++) { > > if (sb.length() > 0) { sb.append(", "); } > > sb.append(fields[i].getName() + "=" + fields[i].get(this)); > > } > > str = sb.toString().trim(); > > } catch (Exception e) { > > str = "Exception in ActionForm.toString() : " + e; > > } > > return str; > > } > > > > The value of AVERAGE_FIELD_SIZE is a matter of debate, and it's of course impossible > > to come up with a real value, so something reasonable is the answer. 25 struck me > > as a decent starting point. > > > > What does everyone think? I find this functionality to be very useful in my work, > > and I suspect others may as well. The code doesn't add any dependencies outside > > J2SE, and it's certainly simple enough as to not be particularly risky. > > > > Thanks all! > > > > Frank W. Zammetti > > Founder and Chief Software Architect > > Omnytex Technologies > > http://www.omnytex.com > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
