I've modified the fix per feedback (thanks all). System.clearProperty
now attempts to get the property with the specified key. If there is
such a property, and the value is a String, remove the property and
return the value removed, otherwise return null (if it is null) or throw
CCE (if it's not null and is not a String...do not remove the property
here). Webrev can be found here:
http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~sherman/darryl/6578042/webrev
Darryl
On 11/12/2011 04:14 AM, Alan Bateman wrote:
On 11/11/2011 19:37, Darryl Mocek wrote:
Returning null if the value is not a String gives the impression that
there was no property with that key when the property may have been
there and may in fact have been removed.
That's a fair point and probably enough to conclude that this approach
should be dismissed.
The toString approach is inconsistent so I think this brings us back
to the original suggestion which is to specify that CCE is thrown (as
it always has) but without side effects (meaning it doesn't remove the
property). I think this is the best we can do with this broken API.
:
I would prefer it if Properties didn't allow non-String keys and
values at all since they're supposed to be Strings (by API
implication) and that Properties not extend Hashtable or extends
Hashtable<String, String>, but I digress.
Properties goes back to JDK1.0 and has a warning in its javadoc for
many years to discourage inserting keys or values that are not
Strings. I'm not sure whether we can do much about it now without
risking compatibility issues.
-Alan.
