ToStringBuilder doesn't print contents of nested objects

Question

I am cuurently using apache commons API (commmons-lang.jar) to print an object values as shown below:

ToStringBuilder.reflectionToString(object,ToStringStyle.MULTI_LINE_STYLE))

But this code does not print value if the object has a getter method which returns another object.

For example I have Person object it has a getter method which returns Address object. Using the above code, it just prints Address object name. I am looking for printing Address object values also. If I a pass person.getAddress() to above code it prints that but I want to see everything when I pass person object.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Because it does not generate toString recursively. Either look for another tool, or just implement (or, better, IDE-autogenerate) the Object#toString() for all of them yourself.

For example:

public class Person {
    private String name;
    private Address address;
    // Add/generate ctors, getters and setters.

    public String toString() {
        return String.format("Person[name: %s, %s]", name, address);
    }
}

and

public class Address {
    private String street;
    private String city;
    // Add/generate ctors, getters and setters.

    public String toString() {
        return String.format("Address[street: %s, city: %s]", street, city);
    }
}

this way the

String personString = person.toString();

and

System.out.println(person);

would produce something like

Person[name: goutham, Address[street: Main Street 1, city: New York]]

Answer 2

You can use this method to dump each objects

 public static String dump(Object object) {
    Field[] fields = object.getClass().getDeclaredFields();
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    sb.append(object.getClass().getSimpleName()).append('{');

    boolean firstRound = true;

    for (Field field : fields) {
        if (!firstRound) {
            sb.append(", ");
        }
        firstRound = false;
        field.setAccessible(true);
        try {
            final Object fieldObj = field.get(object);
            final String value;
            if (null == fieldObj) {
                value = "null";
            } else {
                value = fieldObj.toString();
            }
            sb.append(field.getName()).append('=').append('\'')
                    .append(value).append('\'');
        } catch (IllegalAccessException ignore) {
            //this should never happen
        }

    }

    sb.append('}');
    return sb.toString();
}

If there are objects inside the object, pass obj1.obj2 as the argument.

Answer 3

Since version 3.2 of Apache Commons Lang, you can use a RecursiveToStringStyle to achieve exactly what you want.

Either:

ToStringBuilder.reflectionToString(object, new RecursiveToStringStyle());

or

ToStringBuilder.reflectionToString(object, new MultilineRecursiveToStringStyle());

MultilineRecursiveToStringStyle is available since version 3.4