Tools for Java template-based String construction

Question

I am trying to refactor some legacy code. The task here is to construct lengthy messages/strings based on some pre-defined template that looks like this:

field1,8,String
filed2,5,Integer
field3,12,String
......

Then I am handed a java object that has all those fields. What needs to be done here is simply get data from the object fields and use them to construct a long message/string based on the template. Some of these fields also may be converted based on some simple rules. For example:

abc => a
def => d
ghi => g

As a result we need to check the values of these fields from time to time. Also there are rules about padding (mostly adding empty space to the right). So a conostructed message/string may look like this:

uater   4751 enterprise  ......

Currently we are just using brutal force to do this job. First we feed the template into an ArrayList, each element is a line, eg, "field1,8,String". During the actual message construction, we loop through this ArrayList, and then fill the data into a StringBuffer. Here is some sample snippet

StringBuffer message = new StringBuffer(1000);
for (String field : templateFields) {
    String[] fieldArray = field.split(Constants.SEPARATOR);
    if (fieldArray[0].equalsIgnoreCase(Constants.WORKFLOW)) {
        message.append(rightPad(object.getFieldOne(), Integer.parseInt(fieldArray[1])));
    } else if (fieldArray[0].equalsIgnoreCase(Constants.WORKVOLUME)) {
        message.append(rightPad(object.getFieldTwo(), Integer.parseInt(fieldArray[1]));
    } else if (fieldArray[0].equalsIgnoreCase(Constants.WORKTYPE)) {
        if (object.getFieldThree().equalsIgnoreCase("abc")) {
             message.append(rightPad("a", Integer.parseInt(fieldArray[1]));
        } else if (object.getFieldThree().equalsIgnoreCase("def")) {
             message.append(rightPad("d", Integer.parseInt(fieldArray[1]));
        } else {
            message.append(rightPad("g", Integer.parseInt(fieldArray[1]));
        }
    } else if ......
}

As you can see, as hidious as it is, it gets the job done. But such code is error-prone, and is hard to maintain. I wonder if you guys have any tools or libraries or some elegant solutions to recommend.
Thanks so much! Hua

Answer 1

If I understand your question right, you have an approach where you are looping over possible templateFields. That's not necessary.

Since every fieldArray[0] is compared to some Constants values and in case of a match is processed further, we can replace the for-loop by a Map. Its keys are the possible Constants values and its values are mappers. A mapper is a BiFunction which takes the object and the value of fieldArray[1] and returns for these a message of type String.

Let's start with the mappers:

public class FieldToMessageMapper {

    private static final Map<String, Function<String, String>> WORKINGTYPE_MESSAGE_MAPPER = new HashMap<>();
    static {
      WORKINGTYPE_MESSAGE_MAPPER.put("abc", fieldArray1 -> rightPad("a", Integer.parseInt(fieldArray1)));
      WORKINGTYPE_MESSAGE_MAPPER.put("def", fieldArray1 -> rightPad("d", Integer.parseInt(fieldArray1)));
      WORKINGTYPE_MESSAGE_MAPPER.put("DEFAULT", fieldArray1 -> rightPad("g", Integer.parseInt(fieldArray1)));
    }

    private static Map<String, BiFunction<MyObject, String, String>> MESSAGE_MAPPER = new HashMap<>();
    static {
      MESSAGE_MAPPER.put(Constants.WORKFLOW, (o, fieldArray1) -> rightPad(o.getFieldOne(), Integer.parseInt(fieldArray1)));
      MESSAGE_MAPPER.put(Constants.WORKVOLUME, (o, fieldArray1) -> rightPad(o.getFieldTwo(), Integer.parseInt(fieldArray1)));
      MESSAGE_MAPPER.put(Constants.WORKTYPE,
        (o, fieldArray1) -> WORKINGTYPE_MESSAGE_MAPPER.getOrDefault(o.getFieldThree().toLowerCase(), WORKINGTYPE_MESSAGE_MAPPER.get("DEFAULT")).apply(fieldArray1));
    }

    public static Optional<String> map(MyObject o, String fieldArray0, String fieldArray1) {
      return Optional.ofNullable(MESSAGE_MAPPER.get(fieldArray0.toLowerCase()))
        .map(mapper -> mapper.apply(o, fieldArray1));
    }

    private static String rightPad(String string, int pad) {
        // TODO right pad
        return string;
    }
  }

We do not return a mapper itself. FieldToMessageMapper offers the method map which does the mapping. It returns an Optional<String> which shows the result might be empty if there is no mapping for the input.
To ensure to get a mapper independent of the characters case, all keys are String..toLowerCase().

Let's go on with the overall processing:

  protected StringBuffer process(Collection<String> templateFields, MyObject object) {
    StringBuffer message = new StringBuffer(1000);
    for (String field : templateFields) {
      String[] fieldArray = field.split(Constants.SEPARATOR);
      String msg = FieldToMessageMapper.map(object, fieldArray[0], fieldArray[1])
        .orElseThrow(() -> new IllegalArgumentException(String.format("Unsupported field %s", field)));
      message.append(msg);
    }
    return message;
  }

I don't know how you need to handle missing mappings. I choose fail fast by throwing an exception.

Please note: StringBuffer is

A thread-safe, mutable sequence of characters. A string buffer is like a String, but can be modified.

If your processing isn't multithreaded you could use StringBuilder. If the result isn't modified further, you could use String.

Let me show a further alternative using Stream which returns a String:

  protected String process(Collection<String> templateFields, MyObject object) {
    return templateFields.stream()
      .map(field -> field.split(Constants.SEPARATOR))
      .map(fieldArray -> FieldToMessageMapper.map(object, fieldArray[0], fieldArray[1])
        .orElseThrow(() -> new IllegalArgumentException(String.format("Unsupported field %s", Arrays.toString(fieldArray)))))
      .collect(Collectors.joining());
  }

---

If I got the code from the question right, there should be the following implementation of Constants:

  public class Constants {
    public static final String SEPARATOR = ",";
    public static final String WORKFLOW = "field1";
    public static final String WORKVOLUME = "filed2";
    public static final String WORKTYPE = "field3";
  }

---

EDIT:

If you want to have a configuration approach you can elaborate this code further to use Spring configuration:

1. Define an interface MessageMapper which has two methods: String getKey() and String map(MyObject o, String fieldArray1). getKey() returns the Constants value for which the mapper provides the mapping.
2. Implement each of above MESSAGE_MAPPER using this interface.
3. Add a CommonMessageMapper which has a constructor CommonMessageMapper(MessageMapper... messageMappers). The messageMappers has to be put in a Map<String, BiFunction<MyObject, String, String>> mappers like: mappers.put(messageMapper.getKey(), messageMapper). Define a method String map(MyObject o, String fieldArray0, String fieldArray1) which will lookup the appropriate MessageMapper mm using fieldArray0: MessageMapper mm = mappers.get(fieldArray0). Invoke then mm.map(o, feldArray1). (You may use here also an Optional to handle the case when no appropriate mapper is present.)
4. To use Spring configuration all MessageMapper and the CommonMessageMapper have to be annotated as Bean or Component. The constructor of CommonMessageMapper has to be annotated with @Autowired.
5. Define a Spring configuration (either using XML or as @Configuration) which will inject the desired MessageMapper into a CommonMessageMapper and has a factory method for such a CommonMessageMapper.
6. Use CommonMessageMapper instead of FieldToMessageMapper above.