PropertyFiles.jl

This small package implements properties and property files inspired by Java. Replicating it's functionality the package only handles string keys and string values. Advantage is that saving the files is easy-peasy, downside that the user must parse/convert the strings into other types. The intended use covers mostly "basic" types like strings, integers, floats, but the package does not restrict the use of other types.

Installation

Install the package by:

(v1.1) pkg> add https://github.com/cserteGT3/PropertyFiles.jl

Types and functions

The package introduces the Properties type, which wraps a dictionary: Dict{String,String}.

julia> using PropertyFiles

julia> p = Properties()
Properties(Dict{String,String}())

setprop() function can be used to populate the dictionary. Only strings can be used for keys and values, values with other types are converted.

julia> setprop(p, "key1", "this is a string")

julia> setprop(p, "key2", 156.0)

You can get the stored values with the getprop function.

julia> getprop(p, "key1")
"this is a string"

julia> getprop(p, "key2")
"156.0"

julia> getprop(p, "not defined key", "default value")
"default value"

As the last example shows, you can give a default value for the case the key not exists.

Storing and loading files

You can save and load the property-dictionary with or without comments:

julia> store(p, "filename.jlprop")

julia> store(p, "filename2.jlprop", "comments")

julia> p1 = load("filename.jlprop")
Properties(Dict("key2"=>"156.0","key1"=>"this is a string"))

julia> p1.properties == p.properties
true

The produced file looks like (filename2.jlprop):

#comments
#2019-08-02T12:41:09.798
key2=156.0
key3=0
key1=this is a string

TODO

• more tests for different types
• add more tests in general
• more documentation
• • file format description
• • Usage with user defined types section
• overload Base.show
• overload more functions from Base
• automatic conversion from string

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to @tpapp for the PkgSkeleton.jl package which made the publication of this package much more easier.