Java multiline string

Question

Coming from Perl, I sure am missing the \"here-document\" means of creating a multi-line string in source code:

$string = <<\"EOF\"  # create a three-l         


        

Answer 1

This is a very common question, so I decided to turn this answer into an article as well.

Java 13 and beyond

Multiline Strings are now supported in Java via Text Blocks. In Java 13 and 14, this feature requires you to set the ––enable–preview option when building and running your project. Check out this Java documentation for more details.

Now, prior to Java 13, this is how you'd write a query:

List<Tuple> posts = entityManager
.createNativeQuery(
    "SELECT *\n" +
    "FROM (\n" +
    "    SELECT *,\n" +
    "           dense_rank() OVER (\n" +
    "               ORDER BY \"p.created_on\", \"p.id\"\n" +
    "           ) rank\n" +
    "    FROM (\n" +
    "        SELECT p.id AS \"p.id\",\n" +
    "               p.created_on AS \"p.created_on\",\n" +
    "               p.title AS \"p.title\",\n" +
    "               pc.id as \"pc.id\",\n" +
    "               pc.created_on AS \"pc.created_on\",\n" +
    "               pc.review AS \"pc.review\",\n" +
    "               pc.post_id AS \"pc.post_id\"\n" +
    "        FROM post p\n" +
    "        LEFT JOIN post_comment pc ON p.id = pc.post_id\n" +
    "        WHERE p.title LIKE :titlePattern\n" +
    "        ORDER BY p.created_on\n" +
    "    ) p_pc\n" +
    ") p_pc_r\n" +
    "WHERE p_pc_r.rank <= :rank\n",
    Tuple.class)
.setParameter("titlePattern", "High-Performance Java Persistence %")
.setParameter("rank", 5)
.getResultList();

Thanks to Java 13 Text Blocks, you can rewrite this query as follows:

List<Tuple> posts = entityManager
.createNativeQuery("""
    SELECT *
    FROM (
        SELECT *,
               dense_rank() OVER (
                   ORDER BY "p.created_on", "p.id"
               ) rank
        FROM (
            SELECT p.id AS "p.id",
                   p.created_on AS "p.created_on",
                   p.title AS "p.title",
                   pc.id as "pc.id",
                   pc.created_on AS "pc.created_on",
                   pc.review AS "pc.review",
                   pc.post_id AS "pc.post_id"
            FROM post p
            LEFT JOIN post_comment pc ON p.id = pc.post_id
            WHERE p.title LIKE :titlePattern
            ORDER BY p.created_on
        ) p_pc
    ) p_pc_r
    WHERE p_pc_r.rank <= :rank
    """,
    Tuple.class)
.setParameter("titlePattern", "High-Performance Java Persistence %")
.setParameter("rank", 5)
.getResultList();

Much more readable, right?

IDE support

IntelliJ IDEA provides support for transforming legacy String concatenation blocks to the new multiline String format:

JSON, HTML, XML

The multiline String is especially useful when writing JSON, HTML, or XML.

Consider this example using String concatenation to build a JSON string literal:

entityManager.persist(
    new Book()
    .setId(1L)
    .setIsbn("978-9730228236")
    .setProperties(
        "{" +
        "   \"title\": \"High-Performance Java Persistence\"," +
        "   \"author\": \"Vlad Mihalcea\"," +
        "   \"publisher\": \"Amazon\"," +
        "   \"price\": 44.99," +
        "   \"reviews\": [" +
        "       {" +
        "           \"reviewer\": \"Cristiano\", " +
        "           \"review\": \"Excellent book to understand Java Persistence\", " +
        "           \"date\": \"2017-11-14\", " +
        "           \"rating\": 5" +
        "       }," +
        "       {" +
        "           \"reviewer\": \"T.W\", " +
        "           \"review\": \"The best JPA ORM book out there\", " +
        "           \"date\": \"2019-01-27\", " +
        "           \"rating\": 5" +
        "       }," +
        "       {" +
        "           \"reviewer\": \"Shaikh\", " +
        "           \"review\": \"The most informative book\", " +
        "           \"date\": \"2016-12-24\", " +
        "           \"rating\": 4" +
        "       }" +
        "   ]" +
        "}"
    )
);

You can barely read the JSON due to the escaping characters and the abundance of double quotes and plus signs.

With Java Text Blocks, the JSON object can be written like this:

entityManager.persist(
    new Book()
    .setId(1L)
    .setIsbn("978-9730228236")
    .setProperties("""
        {
           "title": "High-Performance Java Persistence",
           "author": "Vlad Mihalcea",
           "publisher": "Amazon",
           "price": 44.99,
           "reviews": [
               {
                   "reviewer": "Cristiano",
                   "review": "Excellent book to understand Java Persistence",
                   "date": "2017-11-14",
                   "rating": 5
               },
               {
                   "reviewer": "T.W",
                   "review": "The best JPA ORM book out there",
                   "date": "2019-01-27",
                   "rating": 5
               },
               {
                   "reviewer": "Shaikh",
                   "review": "The most informative book",
                   "date": "2016-12-24",
                   "rating": 4
               }
           ]
        }
        """
    )
);

Ever since I used C# in 2004, I've been wanting to have this feature in Java, and now we finally have it.

Answer 2

String.join

Java 8 added a new static method to java.lang.String which offers a slightly better alternative:

String.join( CharSequence delimiter , CharSequence... elements )

Using it:

String s = String.join(
    System.getProperty("line.separator"),
    "First line.",
    "Second line.",
    "The rest.",
    "And the last!"
);

Answer 3

In the IntelliJ IDE you just need to type:

""

Then position your cursor inside the quotation marks and paste your string. The IDE will expand it into multiple concatenated lines.

Answer 4

Actually, the following is the cleanest implementation I have seen so far. It uses an annotation to convert a comment into a string variable...

/**
  <html>
    <head/>
    <body>
      <p>
        Hello<br/>
        Multiline<br/>
        World<br/>
      </p>
    </body>
  </html>
  */
  @Multiline
  private static String html;

So, the end result is that the variable html contains the multiline string. No quotes, no pluses, no commas, just pure string.

This solution is available at the following URL... http://www.adrianwalker.org/2011/12/java-multiline-string.html

Hope that helps!

Answer 5

Use Properties.loadFromXML(InputStream). There's no need for external libs.

Better than a messy code (since maintainability and design are your concern), it is preferable not to use long strings.

Start by reading xml properties:

 InputStream fileIS = YourClass.class.getResourceAsStream("MultiLine.xml");
 Properties prop = new Properies();
 prop.loadFromXML(fileIS);

then you can use your multiline string in a more maintainable way...

static final String UNIQUE_MEANINGFUL_KEY = "Super Duper UNIQUE Key";
prop.getProperty(UNIQUE_MEANINGFUL_KEY) // "\n    MEGA\n   LONG\n..."

MultiLine.xml` gets located in the same folder YourClass:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE properties SYSTEM "http://java.sun.com/dtd/properties.dtd">

<properties>
    <entry key="Super Duper UNIQUE Key">
       MEGA
       LONG
       MULTILINE
    </entry>
</properties>

PS.: You can use <![CDATA[" ... "]]> for xml-like string.

Answer 6

A quite efficient and platform independent solution would be using the system property for line separators and the StringBuilder class to build strings:

String separator = System.getProperty("line.separator");
String[] lines = {"Line 1", "Line 2" /*, ... */};

StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(lines[0]);
for (int i = 1; i < lines.length(); i++) {
    builder.append(separator).append(lines[i]);
}
String multiLine = builder.toString();