Is valid use toString for a table?

Question

im using a toString for display a table:

public String toString(){
    return(
            "<table>"
            +"<tr>"
            +"<th> ID </th>"
            +"<th> Nombre </th>"
            +"<th> Enero </th>"
            +"</tr>"
            +"<td>"+idcliente+"</td>"
            +"<td>"+nombre+"</td>"
            +"<td>"+enero+ "</td>"
            +"</tr>"
            +"</table>");
}

This method are in a java class with getters and setters, i want display in a jsp with jstl, this is correct?

I don't think this is good approach. You should not use toString() like this — Abhijeet, Sep 13 '16 at 19:07
@MatthewDiana Putting the HTML in the object *at all* is a bad approach. — chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic-, Sep 13 '16 at 19:12
This is 1990s vintage servlet stuff that should never be done. See the answer below. — duffymo, Sep 13 '16 at 19:19
@duffymo Why did we *ever* think PHP/scriptlets were a good idea? — chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic-, Sep 13 '16 at 19:20

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 13 '16 at 19:12

You're coupling representation (the class model) and presentation (the HTML) here, which is a bad design. Instead, use an HTML template such as Thymeleaf or JSP and pass the object to it:

<table>
  <tr>
    <th>ID</th>
    <th>Nombre</th>
    <th>Enero</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td th:text="${cliente.idcliente}" />
    <td th:text="${cliente.nombre}" />
    <td th:text="${cliente.enero}" />
  </tr>
</table>

This way, you can easily make changes to the HTML without interfering with your data model (what if you want to use English in your interface?) and use your toString() for its proper purpose: printing out the object's state in a readable form for debugging.

Is valid use toString for a table?

1 Answers1