RE: HTML to XML, vice versa

Joe Pluta wrote, in part:

>Instead, you should have a generic toString

and then went on and gave some useful caveats.

The method "toString" is special.  Basically, you should override
"toString" for any object that needs and deserves a "standard" output
format to a String.

As a rule of thumb, you should do a "toString" if the following tests are
met:

1.  You want or need some sensibly formatted output of the object to appear
in a System.out.println type statement (including the servlet equivalents).
2.  You have a specific format that "everyone" wants as the String version
of the object (which is a generalization of the first rule).

For instance, if you had an object like CHexadecimalInteger, then you would
almost certainly have a toString method that returned:

"0x"+((new Integer(myint)).toHexString());

as the implementation of "toString" for CHexadecimalInteger where
"toHexString()" is the possibly fictitious routine that takes an ordinary
integer (the CHexadecimalInteger object's "myint" instance variable) and
turns it into a hexadecimal output string.  PS:  There is a real function
in Java somewhere that gives a hex string from an integer, but if it isn't
this one, it is one like it.

Another good example of "toString" is the output you get from an exception
object.

You'll see it in fragments like this:

   }  /* end 'try' block */ catch (IOException e)  { System.err.println
("I/O Exception : "+e.toString()); }



Larry W. Loen  -   Senior Java and AS/400 Performance Analyst
                          Dept HP4, Rochester MN


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