How do I load properties from XML file?

Reading XML properties can be easily done using the java.util.Properties.loadFromXML() method. Just like reading the properties from a file that contains a key=value pairs, the XML file will also contain a key and value wrapped in the following XML format.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE properties SYSTEM "http://java.sun.com/dtd/properties.dtd">
<properties>
    <comment>Application Configuration</comment>
    <entry key="data.folder">D:\AppData</entry>
    <entry key="jdbc.url">jdbc:mysql://localhost/kodejava</entry>
</properties>
package org.kodejava.util;

import java.util.Properties;

public class LoadXmlProperties {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        LoadXmlProperties demo = new LoadXmlProperties();
        try {
            Properties properties = demo.readProperties();

            //Display all properties information
            properties.list(System.out);

            // Read the value of data.folder and jdbc.url configuration
            String dataFolder = properties.getProperty("data.folder");
            System.out.println("data.folder = " + dataFolder);
            String jdbcUrl = properties.getProperty("jdbc.url");
            System.out.println("jdbc.url    = " + jdbcUrl);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    private Properties readProperties() throws Exception {
        Properties properties = new Properties();
        properties.loadFromXML(getClass().getResourceAsStream("/configuration.xml"));
        return properties;
    }
}

The result of the code snippet above:

-- listing properties --
data.folder=D:\AppData
jdbc.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost/kodejava
data.folder = D:\AppData
jdbc.url    = jdbc:mysql://localhost/kodejava

How do I convert InputStream to String?

This example will show you how to convert an InputStream into String. In the code snippet below we read a data.txt file, could be from common directory or from inside a jar file.

package org.kodejava.io;

import java.io.*;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;

public class StreamToString {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        StreamToString demo = new StreamToString();

        // Get input stream of our data file. This file can be in
        // the root of your application folder or inside a jar file
        // if the program is packed as a jar.
        InputStream is = demo.getClass().getResourceAsStream("/student.csv");

        // Call the method to convert the stream to string
        System.out.println(demo.convertStreamToString(is));
    }

    private String convertStreamToString(InputStream stream) throws IOException {
        // To convert the InputStream to String we use the
        // Reader.read(char[] buffer) method. We iterate until the
        // Reader return -1 which means there's no more data to
        // read. We use the StringWriter class to produce the string.
        if (stream != null) {
            Writer writer = new StringWriter();

            char[] buffer = new char[1024];
            try (stream) {
                Reader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(stream,
                        StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
                int length;
                while ((length = reader.read(buffer)) != -1) {
                    writer.write(buffer, 0, length);
                }
            }
            return writer.toString();
        }
        return "";
    }
}

How do I convert string into InputStream?

Here you will find how to convert string into java.io.InputStream object using java.io.ByteArrayInputStream class.

package org.kodejava.io;

import java.io.*;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;

public class StringToStream {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String text = "Converting String to InputStream Example";

        // Convert String to InputStream using ByteArrayInputStream
        // class. This class constructor takes the string byte array
        // which can be done by calling the getBytes() method.
        InputStream stream = new ByteArrayInputStream(text.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
    }
}

How do I read system property as an integer?

The Integer.getInteger() methods allows us to easily read system property and convert it directly to Integer object. This method call the System.getProperty() method and then convert it to integer by calling the Integer.decode() method.

package org.kodejava.lang;

public class IntegerProperty {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Add properties to the system. In this example we create a
        // dummy major and minor version for our application.
        System.setProperty("app.major.version", "2021");
        System.setProperty("app.minor.version", "9");

        // In the code below we use the Integer.getInteger() method to
        // read our application version from the value specified in the
        // system properties.
        Integer major = Integer.getInteger("app.major.version");
        Integer minor = Integer.getInteger("app.minor.version");
        System.out.println("App version = " + major + "." + minor);
    }
}

The output of the code snippet:

App version = 2021.9

How do I decode string to integer?

The static Integer.decode() method can be used to convert a string representation of a number into an Integer object. Under the cover this method call the Integer.valueOf(String s, int radix).

The string can start with the optional negative sign followed with radix specified such as 0x, 0X, # for hexadecimal value, 0 (zero) for octal number.

package org.kodejava.lang;

public class IntegerDecode {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String decimal = "10"; // Decimal
        String hex = "0XFF"; // Hex
        String octal = "077"; // Octal

        Integer number = Integer.decode(decimal);
        System.out.println("String [" + decimal + "] = " + number);

        number = Integer.decode(hex);
        System.out.println("String [" + hex + "] = " + number);

        number = Integer.decode(octal);
        System.out.println("String [" + octal + "] = " + number);
    }
}

The result of the code snippet above:

String [10] = 10
String [0XFF] = 255
String [077] = 63