Overriding toString methods?

Question

Am I going about this the correct way? I generated the toString().

@Override
public String toString()
{
return "Auto [exampleOne=" + exampleOne + ", exampleTwo=" + exampleTwo + ", exampleThree=" + exampleThree ", getexampleOne()=" + getexampleOne() + ", getexampleTwo()=" + getexampleTwo() + ", getexampleThree()=" + getexampleThree() + ", toString()=" + super.toString() + "]";
}

You've done it correctly. Does it convey the information you want? — WJS, Oct 05 '19 at 21:12

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 05 '19 at 21:19

Yes, this overrides the toString() method, which will be called when implicitly casting an object of this class to a String. What will be displayed depends on the String your function is returning.

Note that @Override is already helping you figure this out. It tells the compiler "hey, I want to override a function, please check, if this is actually being done" (see here).

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 05 '19 at 21:19

Java Specification does not use toString() as a logic of smth. and does not strict it. So the developer is free to implement this method on his own. I think there are a couple of recommendations:

it should be simple;
it should be easy to calculate;
it should not throw an exception;
IDE is used it to should class' object in the debugger, so it's better to print the most important values here in one simple line.

I do not recommend to use this method as user's output string or smth. like that. You should create a separate method for the formatted output string.

Overriding toString methods?

2 Answers2