Boolean Expression Evaluation in Java

Question

I'm looking for a relatively simpler (when compared with writing a parser) way to evaluate boolean expressions in Java, and I do not want to use the JEP library.

I have a String expression like: (x > 4 || x < 8 && p > 6) and my aim is to replace the variables with values.

Is there a way by which I can evaluate this expression?

Bear in mind that this can be any level deep so writing a parser would be very complex.

Answer 1

Use Apache Commons Jexl; which is exactly designed for such requirement.

http://commons.apache.org/jexl/

Answer 2

Using jexl (http://commons.apache.org/jexl/), you can accomplish this like this

    JexlEngine jexl = new JexlEngine();
    jexl.setSilent(true);
    jexl.setLenient(true);

    Expression expression = jexl.createExpression("(a || b && (c && d))");
    JexlContext jexlContext = new MapContext();

    //b and c and d should pass
    jexlContext.set("b",true);
    jexlContext.set("c",true);
    jexlContext.set("d",true);

    assertTrue((Boolean)expression.evaluate(jexlContext));

    jexlContext = new MapContext();

    //b and c and NOT d should be false
    jexlContext.set("b",true);
    jexlContext.set("c",true);

    //note this works without setting d to false on the context
    //because null evaluates to false

    assertFalse((Boolean)expression.evaluate(jexlContext));