Properties in java - can we have comma-separated keys with single value?

Question

I want to have multiple keys (>1) for a single value in a properties file in my java application. One simple way of doing the define each key in separate line in property file and the same value to all these keys. This approach increases the maintainability of property file. The other way (which I think could be smart way) is define comma separated keys with the value in single line. e.g.

  key1,key2,key3=value

Java.util.properties doesn't support this out of box. Does anybody did simillar thing before? I did google but didn't find anything.

--manish

Answer 1

I'm not aware of an existing solution, but it should be quite straightforward to implement:

String key = "key1,key2,key3", val = "value";
Map<String, String> map = new HashMap<String, String>();
for(String k : key.split(",")) map.put(k, val); 
System.out.println(map);