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Java How can I have a method return either a child or parent class object

I have two classes where one class inherits the other one as given below:
public class UserData {
protected final String emailAddress;
protected final String name;
public UserData(final String emailAddress, final String name) {
this.emailAddress = emailAddress;
this.name = name;
}
public Optional<String> getEmailAddress() {
return Optional.ofNullable(this.emailAddress);
}
public Optional<String> getName() {
return Optional.ofNullable(this.name);
}
}
public class EmployeeData extends UserData {
protected final String designation;
public EmployeeData(
final String emailAddress,
final String name,
final String designation
) {
super(emailAddress, name);
this.designation = designation;
}
public Optional<String> getDesignation() {
return Optional.ofNullable(this.designation);
}
}
I need to create method in another class that can return either one of these objects and have all getters accessible. I already tried making the return type UserData for both kinds of objects (example given below) but that way, I cannot access the getDesignation getter for EmployeeData. Is there a better way inheritance can be setup to avoid this problem where I cannot access child-specific properties?
public UserData getData() {
if (...some condition) {
return new EmployeeData("address#provider.com", "myName", "Dev")
}
else {
return new UserData("address#provider.com", "myName");
}
}
I did look into these stackoverflow questions but couldn't quite figure it out for my use case
C# how to make a function that can return either child or parent class
What's the equivalent of C# IEnumerable in Java? The covariant-capable one, not the Iterable

Because the object we are returning is of type UserData, we will be unable to call methods that are added within the child class, EmployeeData. You could create the getDesignation() method inside the UserData class and have it return an empty optional object.
public Optional<String> getDesignation() {
return Optional.empty();
}
In this case, you can now override the method within the EmployeeData class to return designation as an Optional like this,
#Override
public Optional<String> getDesignation() {
return Optional.ofNullable(this.designation);
}
Now you will have access to the getDestination() method from returned object of getData(), but you will have to be careful and understand that if the returned type is of UserData, then when calling getDesignation() you will be receiving an Optional.empty() object.

How to use autobean for converting json to java class in GWT

I have a class Person in gwt and I have sent an instance of Person with servlet converted using Gson from server to client. But in the client side seems I can't use Gson. From what I read in forums it seems that the best way is using AutoBeans to convert Json to object Person again.
However in AutoBeans I can only use an interface. I will appreciate if anyone can help me write it.
A json example I get from server and want to convert to Person class again:
{"name":"aaa","family":"fff","username":"uuu","age":20,"phones":[{"id":0,"phoneNumber":"0911111"}],"relatives":[null]}
public class Person implements Serializable {
private String name;
private String family;
private String username;
private int age;
private List<Phone> phones;
private List<Person> relatives;
public Person() {
}
public Person(String name, String family, String username, int age, List<Phone> phones, List<Person> relatives) {
this.name = name;
this.family = family;
this.username = username;
this.age = age;
this.phones = phones;
this.relatives = new ArrayList<Person>();
this.relatives = relatives;
}
public void addPhone(Phone p) {
phones.add(p);
}
public String getName() {
return this.name;
}
public String getFamily() {
return this.family;
}
public int getAge() {
return this.age;
}
public String getUsername() {
return this.username;
}
public List<Phone> getNumbers() {
return this.phones;
}
public List<Person> getRelatives() {
return this.relatives;
}
public String getAllNumbers() {
return Phone.convertPhonesToText(phones);
}
public static Person findPerson(List<Person> personList, String username) {
// .....
}
public static List<Person> convertTextToPersons(List<Person> personList, String personsText) {
// .....
}
public String convertPersonsToText() {
// ....
}
}

Yep, as commented by Tobika the other answer indicates that AutoBeans requires an Interface. AutoBeans feets better if you use it on both sides, client and server side and you define all your models as interfaces.
If you want to use your class models, you can use GWT Jackson which is pretty similar to AutoBeans but it uses your models, binding the json to your model (like other server side libraries; jackson, gson, etc):
https://github.com/nmorel/gwt-jackson
public static interface PersonMapper extends ObjectMapper<Person> {}
#Override public void onModuleLoad() {
PersonMapper mapper = GWT.create(PersonMapper.class);
String json = mapper.write(new Person("John", "Doe"));
GWT.log( json ); // > {"firstName":"John","lastName":"Doe"}
Person person = mapper.read(json);
GWT.log(person.getFirstName() + " " + person.getLastName());
}
Alternatively, you can use just plain GWT with JsInterop. This has many limitations but even with this limitation, it is a pretty good option. This is my favorite option if you can avoid inheritance in your DTOs. But this has the big advantage of being super lightweight (actually zero overhead mapping overhead and zero code overhead as it uses native parsing and no copies, accesing directly to the parsed json object). Limitations: cannot use inheritance, "broken type system" (all X instanceof SomeDtoType returns always true as all DTOs are of type Object wich makes sense because we are actually using the parsed JSON), cannot use collections only native arrays (but thanks to java8 Stream this should not be a problem, whatever you want to do with start with Stream.of(arr)), and only Double and Boolean boxed types supported (not supported any fancy type like Date or BigInteger, not supported long/Long...).
#JsType(isNative=true, package=GLOBAL, name="Object") final class Person {
// you can use getter/setter but as this class is final DTO adds no value
public String firstName; public String lastName; public Phome[] numbers;
// you can add some helper methods, don't forget to skip serialization!
public final #JsOverlay #JsonIgnore List<Phone> getNumberList() {
return Stream.of(numbers).collect(Collectors.toList());
}
}
#JsType(isNative=true, package=GLOBAL, name="Object) final class Phone {
public String number;
}
#JsMethod(namespace = "JSON") public static native <T> T parse(String text);
#Override public void onModuleLoad() {
Person person = parse("{\"firstName\":\"John\",\"lastName\":\"Doe\"}");
GWT.log(person.firstName + " " + person.lastName);
}
These simple and limited DTOs are more a DTO scheme than a type. But has a big advantage, this DTOs works out of the box with most of the server side parsers. Jackson and GSON will encode and parse without any configuration.

java - Editing child in list of parents

I've got an abstract class called customer and another classe called payCust that extends this abstract class. There is another client class that initializes a list of customers.List<Customer> custList = new ArrayList<>();
the customer class has a constructor as follows:
public Customer(String name, String email, String mag) {
this.CusEmail = email;
this.CusName = name;
this.magazine = mag;
}
payCust has the following constructor:
public PayCust(String _name, String _email, String _accountType, String _custMag) {
super(_name, _email, _custMag);
this.accountType = _accountType;
}
all the variables have public get and set methods. e.g.
public void setName(String name) {
this.CusName = name;
}
public String getName() {
return this.CusName;
}
my question is that if the custList had a PayCust added to it. how can i edit the accountType of a customer from that list?
note: email is unique to every customer

You will have to check the instance type of the object within the ArrayList and cast it for usage.
Something like this, for example:
for (Customer c : custList){
if(c instanceof PayCust){
PayCust pc = (PayCust) c;
pc.getAccountType();
}
}

You would have to cast it to a PayCust (assuming you know for a fact that it's a PayCust):
PayCust example = (PayCust) custList.get(0);
String accountType = example.getAccountType ();
...

Convert Userdefined Object to a String Object

I have a user defined class, say
import java.util.Calendar;
public class Employee{
private String name;
private int age;
private Calendar dob;
private Address address;
private boolean married;
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public int getAge() {
return age;
}
public void setAge(int age) {
this.age = age;
}
public Calendar getDob() {
return dob;
}
public void setDob(Calendar dob) {
this.dob = dob;
}
public Address getAddress() {
return address;
}
public void setAddress(Address address) {
this.address = address;
}
public boolean isMarried() {
return married;
}
public void setMarried(boolean married) {
this.married = married;
}
}
class Address{
private int doorNo;
private String streetName;
private String city;
public int getDoorNo() {
return doorNo;
}
public void setDoorNo(int doorNo) {
this.doorNo = doorNo;
}
public String getStreetName() {
return streetName;
}
public void setStreetName(String streetName) {
this.streetName = streetName;
}
public String getCity() {
return city;
}
public void setCity(String city) {
this.city = city;
}
}
I am creating an object of Employee and populating it with setters. I have to represent the above object to string (encrypted or human-readable) and parse back to get similar object. Actually, I want to save the string equivalent of java object in a file and to read back them to get a java object. I know we have object writing, but they are sensitive to edit. I would prefer if a java object can be converted to String of human readable form. Thanks.

To keep your flattened object human readable and hand editable consider encoding your object into a JSON string using one of the popular JSON libraries. Same JSON library will also provide you APIs to decode a JSON string into your object.
One of the popular JSON library is Gson. Here's an use example: Converting JSON to Java

You should override toString() to convert instances of your class to string. As for recreating instances based on their string representation you can define a static factory method for this.
public class Employee {
...
#Override
public String toString() {
...
}
public static Employee fromString(String str) {
...
}
}
You use these methods like this:
To obtain string representation of an instance to string:
Employee john = ...
String johnString = john.toString();
Note that your toString() method will also be called implicitly whenever there is a need to obtain string representation of one of the instances.
To recreate an instance from string:
Employee john = Employee.fromString(johnString);
If you often need to store instances of the class in a file and read them back, you may also consider serialization. See documentation for Serializable interface as well as ObjectInputStream and ObjectOutputStream. You may also want to familiarize yourself with caveats surrounding serialization by reading the last chapter ("Serialization") in Effective Java, second edition. Most importantly be aware that the serialized form of your class becomes part of your public API.

You might be looking for the toString method:
Returns a string representation of the object. In general, the
toString method returns a string that "textually represents" this
object. The result should be a concise but informative representation
that is easy for a person to read. It is recommended that all
subclasses override this method.
In your case you would be doing something of the sort (to be added in each of your classes):
#Override
public String toString()
{
return "Name = " + name + ...
}
The string can be of any format you wish. To save the object, all that you need to do is to write the text that the toString method returns to a file.
To read them back, however, you will have to implement your own logic. On the other hand, what you can do, is to use something such as XStream (instructions here) which will automatically convert your object to XML.
XML is human readable so that your users can modify whatever they need. Once this is done, you can re-use XStream to read back your object.

Try this
Employee em = new Employee;
//Your code
str obj= JavaScriptSerializer.Serialize();
// whenever you want to get object again
Employee emp = (Employee)JavaScriptSerializer.Deserialize();

Casting objects via reflection in Java

I am writing a deserializer method, which looks like so:
public <T> T deserialize(Object[] result, String[] fields, Class<T> type);
So basically I will be passed in a result array of data which is all objects, and a class type T which I need to convert the data in the array to the types in the given class, and create a new class of type T and return it. The String[] fields is the field names corresponding to the data in Object[] result. The field names will correspond to the Class T.
The casting will need to use reflection of the given class to find out the type of each field.
eg.
result = ["Mike", "London", 28];
fields = ["name", "location", "age" ];
Class T =
public class GivenClass{
private String name;
private String location;
private Integer age;
public GivenClass(String name, String location, Integer age){
this.name = name;
this.location = location;
this.age = age;
}
}

Class implementation
static class GivenClass {
private String name;
private String location;
private Integer age;
public GivenClass(String name, String location, Integer age) {
this.name = name;
this.location = location;
this.age = age;
}
public GivenClass(Map<String, Object> data) throws Exception {
for (Field f : GivenClass.class.getDeclaredFields())
f.set(this, data.get(f.getName()));
}
public Map<String, Object> serialize() throws Exception {
Map<String, Object> fields = new HashMap<String, Object>();
for (Field f : GivenClass.class.getDeclaredFields())
fields.put(f.getName(), f.get(this));
return fields;
}
#Override
public String toString() {
return "age=" + age + ", location=" + location + ", name=" + name;
}
}
Example:
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
GivenClass o1 = new GivenClass("Mike", "London", 28);
Map<String, Object> serialized = o1.serialize();
GivenClass o2 = new GivenClass(serialized);
System.out.println(o2.toString());
}
Output:
age=28, location=London, name=Mike

You need to do the conversion yourself. Reflections doesn't convert (it will only check the type of an object is already correct)
Reflections won't give you the names of method/constructor parameters. (You can get them from the debug byte code but that's a real pain)
The approach I take is to use the convention that the constructor parameters are in the same order as the fields. You will also want to assume the type of constructor parameters and field types match. ;)
I would also use primitives instead of wrappers whenever possible. Use int unless you want null to be a valid option. If this is the case you should think about how you want to represent this. For text I usually use empty strings or blank field for null or NaN depending on the context.

The problem with this, is that in Java it's unable to fetch the parameter names of a constructor.
For this particular example, you'll need a default constructor, with which you could create an empty object.
public GivenClass() {
super();
}
Then you could use reflection to get the fields of the class, and then set the appropriate value for them.
But I think it would be much easier to annotate your constructor, and then fetch the annotation informations in your deserialize method. In this case you won't need to fetch the fields and create an empty constructor.
Example:
You need to create a annotation like this:
#Target({ElementType.PARAMETER})
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public #interface Property
{
String value();
}
And then you can use it in your constructor like this:
public GivenClass(#Property("name") String name, #Property("location") String location, #Property("age") Integer age) {
// ...
}

As Peter Lawrey says, casting does not convert a string into an integer.
If your bean follows the standard bean conventions (ie you have getters & setters), then you can use BeanUtils. BeanUtils does some standard conversions, and you can add more by adding a Convertor.
See the following example:
import org.apache.commons.beanutils.BeanUtils;
public class BeanUtilsTest {
public static class Obj {
private int number;
private String string;
public void setNumber(int number) {
this.number = number;
}
public void setString(String string) {
this.string = string;
}
public String toString() {
return "number=" + number + " string=" + string;
}
}
public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception {
String[] values = new String[] { "1", "two" };
String[] properties = new String[] { "number", "string" };
Obj obj = new Obj();
for (int i = 0; i < properties.length; i++) {
BeanUtils.setProperty(obj, properties[i], values[i]);
}
System.out.println("obj=" + obj);
}
}
This produces as output:
obj=number=1 string=two
Note that the above example has only setters, but still works.