Pulling values from a Java Properties file in order?

Question

I have a properties file where the order of the values is important. I want to be able to iterate through the properties file and output the values based on the order of the

Answer 1

Extend java.util.Properties, override both put() and keys():

import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Enumeration;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.LinkedHashSet;
import java.util.Properties;
import java.util.HashMap;

public class LinkedProperties extends Properties {
    private final HashSet<Object> keys = new LinkedHashSet<Object>();

    public LinkedProperties() {
    }

    public Iterable<Object> orderedKeys() {
        return Collections.list(keys());
    }

    public Enumeration<Object> keys() {
        return Collections.<Object>enumeration(keys);
    }

    public Object put(Object key, Object value) {
        keys.add(key);
        return super.put(key, value);
    }
}

Answer 2

I'll add one more famous YAEOOJP (Yet Another Example Of Ordered Java Properties) to this thread because it seems nobody could ever care less about default properties which you can feed to your properties.

@see http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/environment/properties.html

That's my class: surely not 10¹⁶% compliant with any possible situation, but that is fine for my limited dumb purposes right now. Any further comment for correction is appreciated so the Greater Good can benefit.

import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Enumeration;
import java.util.LinkedHashSet;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Properties;
import java.util.Set;

/**
 * Remember javadocs  >:o
 */
public class LinkedProperties extends Properties {

    protected LinkedProperties linkedDefaults;
    protected Set<Object> linkedKeys = new LinkedHashSet<>();

    public LinkedProperties() { super(); }

    public LinkedProperties(LinkedProperties defaultProps) {
        super(defaultProps); // super.defaults = defaultProps;
        this.linkedDefaults = defaultProps;
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized Enumeration<?> propertyNames() {
        return keys();
    }

    @Override
    public Enumeration<Object> keys() {
        Set<Object> allKeys = new LinkedHashSet<>();
        if (null != defaults) {
            allKeys.addAll(linkedDefaults.linkedKeys);
        }
        allKeys.addAll(this.linkedKeys);
        return Collections.enumeration(allKeys);
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized Object put(Object key, Object value) {
        linkedKeys.add(key);
        return super.put(key, value);
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized Object remove(Object key) {
        linkedKeys.remove(key);
        return super.remove(key);
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized void putAll(Map<?, ?> values) {
        for (Object key : values.keySet()) {
            linkedKeys.add(key);
        }
        super.putAll(values);
    }

    @Override
    public synchronized void clear() {
        super.clear();
        linkedKeys.clear();
    }

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 0xC00L;
}

Answer 3

You must override also keySet() if you want to export Properties as XML:

public Set<Object> keySet() { return keys; }