Question

I used ToStringBuilder.reflectionToString(class) in commons-lang, to implement toString() for simple DTOs. Now I’m trying to use Google Guava instead of Apache commons library. And I found Objects.ToStringHelper in Guava. But it’s too verbose if there’re lots of members in the class. For example:

@Override
public String toString() {
    return MoreObjects.toStringHelper(this.getClass()).add("name", name)
            .add("emailAddress", emailAddress)
            .add("department", department).add("yearJoined", yearJoined)
            .toString();
}

is much simpler if I use commons-lang:

@Override
public String toString() {
    return ToStringBuilder.reflectionToString(this);
}

Is there any better ways to implement toString() with Guava, not with commons-lang?

Guava docs

Answer 1

I have a little trick for Guava’s com.google.common.base.MoreObjects.toStringHelper(). I configured IntelliJ IDEA to use it when auto-generating toString() methods. I assume you can do the same in Eclipse. Here’s how to do it in Intellij:

• go inside a class
• hit Alt + Insert to popup the “Generate” menu
• choose toString()
• click the “Settings” button
• go to the “Templates” tab
• create a new template named “Guava’s MoreObjects.toStringHelper()” (I did it by copying the “ToStringBuilder” template)

• change the template to:

  public String toString() {
  #set ($autoImportPackages = "com.google.common.base.MoreObjects")
      return MoreObjects.toStringHelper(this)
  #foreach ($member in $members)
      .add("$member.name", $member.accessor)
  #end
      .toString();
  }
  

• save the template, close the “Settings” and “Generate toString()” windows

• you can now choose the Guava's MoreObjects.toStringHelper() template when generating toString() methods

When you add a new field to the class, simply re-generate the toString() method (IDEA will ask you to confirm that you want to replace the existing toString() method).