Can I escape braces in a java MessageFormat?

Question

I want to output some braces in a java MessageFormat. For example I know the following does not work:

MessageFormat.format("  public {0} get{1}() {return {2};}\n\n", type, upperCamel, lowerCamel); 

Is there a way of escaping the braces surrounding "return {2}"?

Answer 1

You can put them inside single quotes e.g.

'{'return {2};'}' 

See here for more details.

Answer 2

Wow. Surprise! The documentation for MessageFormat knows the answer:

Within a String, "''" represents a single quote. A QuotedString can contain arbitrary characters except single quotes; the surrounding single quotes are removed. An UnquotedString can contain arbitrary characters except single quotes and left curly brackets. Thus, a string that should result in the formatted message "'{0}'" can be written as "'''{'0}''" or "'''{0}'''".