Loading multiple properties files

Question

Is it possible to stack loaded properties in Java? For instance can I do:

Properties properties = new Properties();

properties.load(new FileInputStream(\"file1.         


        

Answer 1

Yes the properties stack. Properties extends Hashtable and load() simply calls put() on each key-value pair.

Relevant code from the Source:

String key = loadConvert(lr.lineBuf, 0, keyLen, convtBuf); 
String value = loadConvert(lr.lineBuf, valueStart, limit - valueStart, convtBuf); 
put(key, value); 

In other words, loading from a file doesn't clear the current entries. However, note that if the two files contain entries with the same key, the first one will be overwritten.