CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaconfiguration
B Johnson
B Johnson

Reputation: 2556

Can I put comments in between or after multiline properties in a Java Properties file?

I've got a properties configuration file with properties that have many values separated by commas. I want to put comments next to some of them, but it seems that this is not possible?

I want to be able to do something like this:

property: value1,\
    value2,\
    ...
    value44,\ 
    value45,\ 
    # value45 comment
    ...
    value89,\ # another comment
    value90

Clarification: I'm supplying the config to a web service I don't own, so I can't use one of the extensions to the properties format like bracket-properties

Upvotes: 9

Views: 7473

Answers (2)

anubhava
anubhava

Reputation: 785058

Unfortunately, it's not possible as Java properties files can have only single line # comments.

However, you might be aware that you can also define properties in xml format and the XML syntax will let you enter multi-line comments.

If you decide to give XML a chance then you will need to call Properties#loadFromXML(InputStream) to load your XML property file.

Upvotes: 8

Ciaran McHale
Ciaran McHale

Reputation: 2234

This is not possible. A comment must appear on a line by itself, and it consists of optional white space followed by the "#" or "!" character, and then arbitrary text up to the end-of-line. You can find the full specification of Java Properties files in the Javadoc documentation for the load(java.io.Reader reader) method of the java.util.Properties class.

Upvotes: 1

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