System.properties()

[Abhi vijay]

Source: MasterExam

  import java.util.*;

public class propertiestest
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
	String s=System.getProperty("bbb","aaa");
	System.out.println(s);
}
}  

Command Line invocation : java -Daaa=ccc propertiestest

Here I selected 2 answers:
The value of aaa is ccc.
The value of bbb is aaa.

But the correct answer is The value of aaa is ccc., the other one is incorrect, why so??

[Christophe Verré]

How can you have two solutions for only one println ? Are you executing the program twice ?

[Abhi vijay]

The program prints aaa.
Actually the program didnt have any print statement, I inserted it.

[Christophe Verré]

Sorry, I still cannot understand why there would be two options. Can you post the exact question and the exact code ?

[Abhi vijay]

    import java.util.*;

public class propertiestest
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
	String s=System.getProperty("bbb","aaa");
	
}
}    

This is the code.
The command line invocation is java -Daaa=ccc propertiestest.

Now we have to choose : Choose the option which will be always true.
The correct answer is The value of property aaa is ccc.

[Balagopal Kannampallil]

For your question about the method System. getProperty(String key, String def), javadoc has the answer

Gets the system property indicated by the specified key.
First, if there is a security manager, its checkPropertyAccess method is called with the key as its argument.
If there is no current set of system properties, a set of system properties is first created and initialized in the same manner as for the getProperties method.

This happens when we pass a key and definition to getProperty method. If you pass only a key like System. getProperty("aaa") without setting the value for aaa initially, it will return null.

[Abhi vijay]

The value of bbb is aaa, also could be the correct answer?

[Balagopal Kannampallil]

Yes.

[Abhi vijay]

But according to Master Exam it is not correct.

[Ankit Garg]

the getProperty method in the example has two parameters. This means that if the value of the property bbb is not set, it will be set to aaa. But it is not given that the value of bbb is set or not. So it is not compulsory that bbb will be set to aaa. If bbb is set in a properties file, then bbb's value will be that value. But since the other property is set as a command line argument, so you are sure that it's value will be the value provided at the command line invocation. This is because if the property is set in a properties file or anywhere else, the value will be overridden...

[Abhi vijay]

ok.Ankit.Now I got it.

[Ruben Soto]

Ankit Garg wrote:the getProperty method in the example has two parameters. This means that if the value of the property bbb is not set, it will be set to aaa. But it is not given that the value of bbb is set or not. So it is not compulsory that bbb will be set to aaa. If bbb is set in a properties file, then bbb's value will be that value. But since the other property is set as a command line argument, so you are sure that it's value will be the value provided at the command line invocation. This is because if the property is set in a properties file or anywhere else, the value will be overridden...

Ankit, actually the property does not get set. What getProperty(property, default) does is return default if property is not set, but property is unaffected. I know because I had this doubt myself a while back so I had to check it out in the API.
Try this:

import java.util.*;

public class propertiestest
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
    String s=System.getProperty("bbb","aaa");
    System.out.println(s);
    s = System.getProperty("bbb");
    System.out.println(s);
}
}

Output is:
aaa
null

[Abhi vijay]

 import java.util.*;

public class propertiestest
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
	System.setProperty("bbb","www");
	String s=System.setProperty("bbb","aaa");
	System.out.println(s);
	 s = System.getProperty("bbb");
     System.out.println(s);
}
}   

Now it is www
aaa.
If property is un-affected then why is it printing aaa?

[Treimin Clark]

Abhi vijay wrote:

Now it is www
aaa.
If property is un-affected then why is it printing aaa?

Because you used setProperty, instead of getProperty

[Abhi vijay]

Oh..thanks...That was a printing mistake.

[Ankit Garg]

Hmm. I didn't knew that