Spring .properties file: get element as an Array

Question

I'm loading properties attributes from a .properties file using Spring as follows:

file: elements.properties base.module.elementToSearch=1 base.module.elementToSearch=2 base.module.elementToSearch=3 base.module.elementToSearch=4 base.module.elementToSearch=5 base.module.elementToSearch=6 

The spring xml file

file: myapplication.xml <bean id="some"       class="com.some.Class">       <property name="property" value="#{base.module.elementToSearch}" /> </bean> 

And my Class.java

file: Class.java public void setProperty(final List<Integer> elements){     this.elements = elements; } 

But when debugging, the parameter elements only get the last element into the list, so, there is a list of one element with value "6", instead of a list with 6 elements.

I tried other approaches, like adding in value only #{base.module} but then it finds no parameter in the properties file.

A workaround is to have in elements.properties file a list separated by commas, like:

base.module.elementToSearch=1,2,3,4,5,6 

and use it as a String and parse it, but is there a better solution?

Answer 1

If you define your array in properties file like:

base.module.elementToSearch=1,2,3,4,5,6 

You can load such array in your Java class like this:

  @Value("${base.module.elementToSearch}")   private String[] elementToSearch;