When debugging a java program in Eclipse, in the Variables view, when you highlight a variable it prints detail for that variable in the pane below. That pane is called the “Detail View,” and the value displayed is the “detail” for the variable. By default, it is simply the result of calling .toString() on the variable. But Eclipse allows you to specify and customize “Detail Formatters” for arbitrary objects that maps them to more helpful and descriptive strings in that view.
My question is this: the .toString() method invoked on an array (say of Integers) returns an unhelpful memory address. However, when I highlight an array variable in debug mode, Eclipse seems to intelligently parse it into a really helpful comma-delimited string (e.g. "[42, 13, null, 19]"). I gather that means Eclipse has established a default Detail Formatter for arrays with really helpful functionality. Does anyone know how I can leverage that Detail Formatter in my code to avoid rewriting identical logic?
In case you’re interested, the motivation is generating the contents of an IN clause for a SQL query. That is, I’m trying to generate a SQL Query:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE id IN (1,2,3)
from on an arbitrary int[]:
int[] ids = new int[] {1,2,3}
I realize I could accomplish this by writing a for loop, using StringBuilder, etc., but I was wondering if Eclipse has already done that for me and exposes a helpful method (Read: I am exceedingly lazy)
Eclipse uses
Arrays.toString, but if you want to use parentheses instead of square brackets, you might want to use Guava: