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How to access an object attribute from a String in Java?

I have a String that tells me what attribute I should use to make some filtering. How can I use this String to actually access the data in the object ?
I have a method that returns a List of strings telling me how to filter my List of objects. Such as:
String[] { "id=123", "name=foo" }
So my first idea was to split the String into 2 parts with:
filterString.split("=") and use the first part of the String (e.g. "id") to identify the attribute being filtered.
Coming for a JS background, I would do it like this:
const attr = filterString.split('=')[0]; // grabs the "id" part from the string "id=123", for example
const filteredValue = filterString.split('=')[1]; // grabs the "123" part from the string "id=123", for example
items.filter(el => el[`${attr}`] === filteredValue) // returns an array with the items where the id == "123"
How would I be able to do that with Java ?

You can use reflections to get fields of class by dynamic name.
#Test
void test() throws NoSuchFieldException, IllegalAccessException {
String[] filters = {"id=123", "name=foo"};
List<Item> list = newArrayList(new Item(123, "abc"), new Item(2, "foo"), new Item(123, "foo"));
Class<Item> itemClass = Item.class;
for (String filter : filters) {
String key = StringUtils.substringBefore(filter, "=");
String value = StringUtils.substringAfter(filter, "=");
Iterator<Item> iterator = list.iterator();
while (iterator.hasNext()) {
Item item = iterator.next();
Field field = itemClass.getDeclaredField(key);
field.setAccessible(true);
Object itemValue = field.get(item);
if (!value.equals(String.valueOf(itemValue))) {
iterator.remove();
}
}
}
assertEquals(1, list.size());
}
But I agree with comment from sp00m - it's slow and potentially dangerous.

This code should work :
//create the filter map
Map<String, String> expectedFieldValueMap = new HashMap<>();
for (String currentDataValue : input) {
String[] keyValue = currentDataValue.split("=");
String expectedField = keyValue[0];
String expectedValue = keyValue[1];
expectedFieldValueMap.put(expectedField, expectedValue);
}
Then iterate over input object list ( have used Employee class with id and name fields & prepared a test data list with few Employee objects called inputEmployeeList which is being iterated ) and see if all filters passes, using reflection, though slow, is one way:
for (Employee e : inputEmployeeList) {
try {
boolean filterPassed = true;
for (String expectedField : expectedFieldValueMap.keySet()) {
String expectedValue = expectedFieldValueMap.get(expectedField);
Field fieldData = e.getClass().getDeclaredField(expectedField);
fieldData.setAccessible(true);
if (!expectedValue.equals(fieldData.get(e))) {
filterPassed = false;
break;
}
}
if (filterPassed) {
System.out.println(e + " object passed the filter");
}
} catch (Exception any) {
any.printStackTrace();
// handle
}
}

Java sanitizing Arraylist records suggestions

I am looking for an idea how to accomplish this task. So I'll start with how my program is working.
My program reads a CSV file. They are key value pairs separated by a comma.
L1234456,ygja-3bcb-iiiv-pppp-a8yr-c3d2-ct7v-giap-24yj-3gie
L6789101,zgna-3mcb-iiiv-pppp-a8yr-c3d2-ct7v-gggg-zz33-33ie
etc
Function takes a file and parses it into an arrayList of String[]. The function returns the ArrayList.
public ArrayList<String[]> parseFile(File csvFile) {
Scanner scan = null;
try {
scan = new Scanner(csvFile);
} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
}
ArrayList<String[]> records = new ArrayList<String[]>();
String[] record = new String[2];
while (scan.hasNext()) {
record = scan.nextLine().trim().split(",");
records.add(record);
}
return records;
}
Here is the code, where I am calling parse file and passing in the CSVFile.
ArrayList<String[]> Records = parseFile(csvFile);
I then created another ArrayList for files that aren't parsed.
ArrayList<String> NotParsed = new ArrayList<String>();
So the program then continues to sanitize the key value pairs separated by a comma. So we first start with the first key in the record. E.g L1234456. If the record could not be sanitized it then it replaces the current key with "CouldNOtBeParsed" text.
for (int i = 0; i < Records.size(); i++) {
if(!validateRecord(Records.get(i)[0].toString())) {
Logging.info("Records could not be parsed " + Records.get(i)[0]);
NotParsed.add(srpRecords.get(i)[0].toString());
Records.get(i)[0] = "CouldNotBeParsed";
} else {
Logging.info(Records.get(i)[0] + " has been sanitized");
}
}
Next we do the 2nd key in the key value pair e.g ygja-3bcb-iiiv-pppp-a8yr-c3d2-ct7v-giap-24yj-3gie
for (int i = 0; i < Records.size(); i++) {
if(!validateRecordKey(Records.get(i)[1].toString())) {
Logging.info("Record Key could not be parsed " + Records.get(i)[0]);
NotParsed.add(Records.get(i)[1].toString());
Records.get(i)[1] = "CouldNotBeParsed";
} else {
Logging.info(Records.get(i)[1] + " has been sanitized");
}
}
The problem is that I need both keyvalue pairs to be sanitized, make a separate list of the keyValue pairs that could not be sanitized and a list of the ones there were sanitized so they can be inserted into a database. The ones that cannot will be printed out to the user.
I thought about looping thought the records and removing the records with the "CouldNotBeParsed" text so that would just leave the ones that could be parsed. I also tried removing the records from the during the for loop Records.remove((i)); However that messes up the For loop because if the first record could not be sanitized, then it's removed, the on the next iteration of the loop it's skipped because record 2 is now record 1. That's why i went with adding the text.
Atually I need two lists, one for the Records that were sanitized and another that wasn't.
So I was thinking there must be a better way to do this. Or a better method of sanitizing both keyValue pairs at the same time or something of that nature. Suggestions?

Start by changing the data structure: rather than using a list of two-element String[] arrays, define a class for your key-value pairs:
class KeyValuePair {
private final String key;
private final String value;
public KeyValuePair(String k, String v) { key = k; value = v; }
public String getKey() { return key; }
public String getValue() { return value; }
}
Note that the class is immutable.
Now make an object with three lists of KeyValuePair objects:
class ParseResult {
private final List<KeyValuePair> sanitized = new ArrayList<KeyValuePair>();
private final List<KeyValuePair> badKey = new ArrayList<KeyValuePair>();
private final List<KeyValuePair> badValue = new ArrayList<KeyValuePair>();
public ParseResult(List<KeyValuePair> s, List<KeyValuePair> bk, List<KeyValuePair> bv) {
sanitized = s;
badKey = bk;
badValue = bv;
}
public List<KeyValuePair> getSanitized() { return sanitized; }
public List<KeyValuePair> getBadKey() { return badKey; }
public List<KeyValuePair> getBadValue() { return badValue; }
}
Finally, populate these three lists in a single loop that reads from the file:
public static ParseResult parseFile(File csvFile) {
Scanner scan = null;
try {
scan = new Scanner(csvFile);
} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
???
// Do something about this exception.
// Consider not catching it here, letting the caller deal with it.
}
final List<KeyValuePair> sanitized = new ArrayList<KeyValuePair>();
final List<KeyValuePair> badKey = new ArrayList<KeyValuePair>();
final List<KeyValuePair> badValue = new ArrayList<KeyValuePair>();
while (scan.hasNext()) {
String[] tokens = scan.nextLine().trim().split(",");
if (tokens.length != 2) {
???
// Do something about this - either throw an exception,
// or log a message and continue.
}
KeyValuePair kvp = new KeyValuePair(tokens[0], tokens[1]);
// Do the validation on the spot
if (!validateRecordKey(kvp.getKey())) {
badKey.add(kvp);
} else if (!validateRecord(kvp.getValue())) {
badValue.add(kvp);
} else {
sanitized.add(kvp);
}
}
return new ParseResult(sanitized, badKey, badValue);
}
Now you have a single function that produces a single result with all your records cleanly separated into three buckets - i.e. sanitized records, records with bad keys, and record with good keys but bad values.

java recursion: object is replaced rather than adding a new one

I am trying to add an object inside an object using recursion. My object contains an arrayList and I am trying to add my objects to this arrayList. But instead of adding a new object, my objects are being replaced.
My code which is doing this: This is where the logic of adding an object is being done. But it is being replaced instead.
private ArrayList<SubChapters> recursiveSubChapters(ReportingTree tree, LinkedHashMap<String, HashMap<String, String>> linkedHashMap, Boolean isSubTree){
SubChapters subChapters = new Subchapters();
ArrayList<SubChapters> alchildUnits = new ArrayList<SubChapters>();
final String chapterId = linkedHashMap.get(tree.getUnitID()).get("unit_num");
final String chapterName= linkedHashMap.get(tree.getUnitID()).get("unit_name");
if (!isSubTree) {
subChapters.set(chapterId);
subChapters.setTreeName(chapterName);
}
final ArrayList<ReportingTree> branches = tree.getBranches();
if (branches != null) {
subChapters.hasSubUnits(true);
for (ReportingTree subTree: branches) {
subChapters.setSubChapters(recursiveSubChapters(subTree, linkedHashMap, false));
//This is where the logic of adding an object is being done. But it is being replaced instead.
}
alchildUnits.add(subChapters);
}
return alchildUnits;
}
My guess is that I am messing somewhere in the loop here but I am not able to figure out where I am messing up. Thanks in advance for any suggestions or help.
My subChapters class:
public String subChapterID;
public String subChapterName;
public boolean isSubTree= false;
public ArrayList<SubChapters> subChapters;
and getters and setters.
I have coded the same solution to return a string and see the order on a jsp. It works just fine. I am not able to apply the same to my issue here.
private String recursive(ReportingTree tree, LinkedHashMap<String, HashMap<String, String>> listUnitInfo, boolean isTop) {
final String unitID = tree.getUnitID();
final HashMap<String, String> unit = listUnitInfo.get(unitID);
String output = "";
if (!isTop) {
output += "<li>" + unit.get("unit_num") + "/" + unit.get("unit_name") + "";
}
final ArrayList<ReportingTree> branches = tree.getBranches();
if (branches != null) {
if (isTop) {
output += "<li>" + unit.get("unit_num") + "/" + unit.get("unit_name") + "";
}
output += "<ul>\n";
for (ReportingTree subTree : branches) {
output += recursive(subTree, listUnitInfo, false);
}
output += "</ul>";
} else {
if (isTop) {
output += "<li>No units match your criteria.";
}
}
output += "</li>\n";
return output;
}

What you're doing is subChapters.setSubChapters, what I think you're trying to do is
subChapters.addSubChapters.
The reason why it works with the strings is because you're using += to add
the new string to the old string. Doing setSubChapters would be the same as using = with the strings.
addSubChapters would be a method that should add something to an ArrayList variable inside your subChapters class.

How to sort GSON Array based on a key?

Consider the following is my Array
[
{"id":10,"name":"name10","valid":true},
{"id":12,"name":"name12","valid":false},
{"id":11,"name":"name11","valid":false},
{"id":9,"name":"name9","valid":true}
]
Created a JsonArray out of it, like following code does:
//Create a JSON Parser using GSON library
objJsonParser = new JsonParser();
String strArrayText = [{"id":9,"name":"name9","valid":true}, ...]
JsonArray jsonArrayOfJsonObjects = objJsonParser.parse(strArrayText).getAsJsonArray();
Now, I am trying to sort jsonArrayOfJsonObjects based on name field.
Desired Output:
[
{"id":9,"name":"name9","valid":true},
{"id":10,"name":"name10","valid":false},
{"id":11,"name":"name11","valid":false},
{"id":12,"name":"name12","valid":true}
]
Could anyone help to sort this out with best apporach with respect to Java & Gson?
Your inputs are greatly appreciated.

First of all, the proper way to parse your JSON is to create a class to encapsulate your data, such as:
public class MyClass {
private Integer id;
private String name;
private Boolean valid;
//getters & setters
}
And then:
Type listType = new TypeToken<List<MyClass>>() {}.getType();
List<MyClass> myList = new Gson().fromJson(strArrayText, listType);
Now you have a List and you want to sort it by the value of the attribute id, so you can use Collections as explained here:
public class MyComparator implements Comparator<MyClass> {
#Override
public int compare(MyClass o1, MyClass o2) {
return o1.getId().compareTo(o2.getId());
}
}
And finally:
Collections.sort(myList, new MyComparator());

Try this library method as a simple JSON-level alternative to model classes creation:
/**
* Sort JSON-array by a given key name (numbers or text expected).
*
* #param jsonArray JSON-array to sort.
* #param keyNameToSort Key name to sort by. Expected are integer type
* (sorted ascending) or string type (sorted
* alphabetically).
*/
public static JsonArray
sortJsonArrayByKey(
JsonArray jsonArray,
String keyNameToSort) {
JsonArray sortedJsonArray = new JsonArray();
JsonObject jsonObject = null;
int jsonElementIndex;
TreeMap<Integer, JsonObject> integerSortedObjects = new TreeMap<>();
TreeMap<String, JsonObject> stringSortedObjects = new TreeMap<>();
for (
jsonElementIndex = 0;
jsonElementIndex < jsonArray.size();
jsonElementIndex++) {
try {
// A JSON-Object from JSON-array:
jsonObject =
jsonArray
.get(
jsonElementIndex)
.getAsJsonObject();
} catch (Exception notAnObject) {
}
for (Entry<String, JsonElement> entry : jsonObject.entrySet()) {
// Look for the given key in the JSON-object:
if (
entry.getKey()
.equals(keyNameToSort)) {
try {
// If key is of integer type:
integerSortedObjects.put(
entry
.getValue()
.getAsInt(),
jsonObject);
} catch (Exception notAnInt) {
try {
// If key is of string type:
stringSortedObjects.put(
entry
.getValue()
.getAsString(),
jsonObject);
} catch (Exception neitherIntNorString) {
}
}
}
}
}
// Add sorted by number values first:
for (Integer key : integerSortedObjects.keySet()) {
sortedJsonArray.add(
integerSortedObjects.get(
key));
}
// Add sorted by string values second:
for (String key : stringSortedObjects.keySet()) {
sortedJsonArray.add(
stringSortedObjects.get(
key));
}
return sortedJsonArray;
}

you can use Gson library https://sites.google.com/site/gson/gson-user-guide
to get the Array(the class should implement comparable) and sort with arrays.sort();
Thanks

Query String Manipulation in Java

Does anyone have, or know of, a java class that I can use to manipulate query strings?
Essentially I'd like a class that I can simply give a query string to and then delete, add and modify query string KVP's.
Thanks in advance.
EDIT
In response to a comment made to this question, the query string will look something like this;
N=123+456+112&Ntt=koala&D=abc
So I'd like to pass this class the query string and say something like;
String[] N = queryStringClass.getParameter("N");
and then maybe
queryStringClass.setParameter("N", N);
and maybe queryStringClass.removeParameter("N");
Or something to that effect.

SOmething like this
public static Map<String, String> getQueryMap(String query)
{
String[] params = query.split("&");
Map<String, String> map = new HashMap<String, String>();
for (String param : params)
{
String name = param.split("=")[0];
String value = param.split("=")[1];
map.put(name, value);
}
return map;
}
To iterate the map simply:
String query = url.getQuery();
Map<String, String> map = getQueryMap(query);
Set<String> keys = map.keySet();
for (String key : keys)
{
System.out.println("Name=" + key);
System.out.println("Value=" + map.get(key));
}

You can also use Google Guava's Splitter.
String queryString = "variableA=89&variableB=100";
Map<String,String> queryParameters = Splitter
.on("&")
.withKeyValueSeparator("=")
.split(queryString);
System.out.println(queryParameters.get("variableA"));
prints out
89
This I think is a very readable alternative to parsing it yourself.
Edit: As #raulk pointed out, this solution does not account for escaped characters. However, this may not be an issue because before you URL-Decode, the query string is guaranteed to not have any escaped characters that conflict with '=' and '&'. You can use this to your advantage in the following way.
Say that you must decode the following query string:
a=%26%23%25!)%23(%40!&b=%23%24(%40)%24%40%40))%24%23%5E*%26
which is URL encoded, then you are guaranteed that the '&' and '=' are specifically used for separating pairs and key from value, respectively, at which point you can use the Guava splitter to get:
a = %26%23%25!)%23(%40!
b = %23%24(%40)%24%40%40))%24%23%5E*%26
Once you have obtained the key-value pairs, then you can URL decode them separately.
a = &#%!)#(#!
b = #$(#)$##))$#^*&
That should cover all cases.

If you are using J2EE, you can use ServletRequest.getParameterValues().
Otherwise, I don't think Java has any common classes for query string handling. Writing your own shouldn't be too hard, though there are certain tricky edge cases, such as realizing that technically the same key may appear more than once in the query string.
One implementation might look like:
import java.util.*;
import java.net.URLEncoder;
import java.net.URLDecoder;
public class QueryParams {
private static class KVP {
final String key;
final String value;
KVP (String key, String value) {
this.key = key;
this.value = value;
}
}
List<KVP> query = new ArrayList<KVP>();
public QueryParams(String queryString) {
parse(queryString);
}
public QueryParams() {
}
public void addParam(String key, String value) {
if (key == null || value == null)
throw new NullPointerException("null parameter key or value");
query.add(new KVP(key, value));
}
private void parse(String queryString) {
for (String pair : queryString.split("&")) {
int eq = pair.indexOf("=");
if (eq < 0) {
// key with no value
addParam(URLDecoder.decode(pair), "");
} else {
// key=value
String key = URLDecoder.decode(pair.substring(0, eq));
String value = URLDecoder.decode(pair.substring(eq + 1));
query.add(new KVP(key, value));
}
}
}
public String toQueryString() {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for (KVP kvp : query) {
if (sb.length() > 0) {
sb.append('&');
}
sb.append(URLEncoder.encode(kvp.key));
if (!kvp.value.equals("")) {
sb.append('=');
sb.append(URLEncoder.encode(kvp.value));
}
}
return sb.toString();
}
public String getParameter(String key) {
for (KVP kvp : query) {
if (kvp.key.equals(key)) {
return kvp.value;
}
}
return null;
}
public List<String> getParameterValues(String key) {
List<String> list = new LinkedList<String>();
for (KVP kvp : query) {
if (kvp.key.equals(key)) {
list.add(kvp.value);
}
}
return list;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
QueryParams qp = new QueryParams("k1=v1&k2&k3=v3&k1=v4&k1&k5=hello+%22world");
System.out.println("getParameter:");
String[] keys = new String[] { "k1", "k2", "k3", "k5" };
for (String key : keys) {
System.out.println(key + ": " + qp.getParameter(key));
}
System.out.println("getParameters(k1): " + qp.getParameterValues("k1"));
}
}

Another way is to use apache http-components. It's a bit hacky, but at least you leverage all the parsing corner cases:
List<NameValuePair> params =
URLEncodedUtils.parse("http://example.com/?" + queryString, Charset.forName("UTF-8"));
That'll give you a List of NameValuePair objects that should be easy to work with.

You can create a util method and use regular expression to parse it. A pattern like "[;&]" should suffice.