Upping the ante (was): ToString?

["Kent Paul Dolan" <xanthian@well.com>]

"Nazgul" <darkelf@aim.homelinux.com> wrote in message
news:a6kv3e$faat1$1@ID-107015.news.dfncis.de...

> Is there something like Integer'ToString(xxx) that converts an integer to a
> string ?

More important, is there something like toString(), with the implied
contract that _every_ object will support a parameterless call to it and
do something sensible to return a string representation of the object
usable for debugging, logging, or "not too fancy" data presentation?

To a newbie(*) Java programmer (me) this is one of the more delightful
discoveries about the language.

xanthian.

As an old timer computer language junkie, it is one of the more
delightful discoveries about _any_ language that it supports features
that are usable anywhere and always do what you want without you having
to think very hard about them.  "Good programmers are lazy programmers"
does not usefully imply that "lazy programmers are good programmers" but
the trend is sure in that direction.

*[See http://www.well.com/user/xanthian/java/TravellerDoc.html for
"pretty much everything I know about Java so far. plus a lot I swiped
without understanding it very well", in source code form.  You might
find something worth stealing.]

And actually, it is harder to spell what was requested in Java,
something like

  String result = ( new Integer( someIntValue ) ).toString();

since "Integer"s are first class objects, but "int"s, the usual
counting numbers, are not, one of Java's multitude of
maddening flaws.

[Don't get me started.]


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