toString method is not getting invoked for the another class

[Rajesh Santhanakrishnan]

Hi, I have 2 classes, Quote and Value. In Quote class, I have an variable for type Value. In both classes , I have implemented toString() method.
Now I am calling the toString() method using below code.

Quote quote = new Quote();
System.out.println(quote);

I was expecting the values in both Quote and Value classes readable. But the toString() method from Value class is not getting invoked. The code is below. Could you please help why it is not invoking.

package webservice;

import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonFormat.Value;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonIgnoreProperties;

@JsonIgnoreProperties(ignoreUnknown=true)
public class Quote {
	
	private String type;
	private Value value;
	
	public Quote(){		
	}

	public String getType() {
		return type;
	}

	public void setType(String type) {
		this.type = type;
	}

	public Value getValue() {
		return value;
	}

	public void setValue(Value value) {
		this.value = value;
	}
	
	@Override
	public String toString() {
		return "Quote [type=" + type + ", value=" + value + "]";
	}
}

package webservice;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonIgnoreProperties;

@JsonIgnoreProperties(ignoreUnknown = true)
public class Value {
	
	private Long id;
	private String quote;
	
	public Long getId() {
		return this.id;
	}

	public void setId(Long id) {
		this.id = id;
	}

	public String getQuote() {
		return this.quote;
	}

	public void setQuote(String quote) {
		this.quote = quote;
	}
	
	@Override
	public String toString() {
		return "Value [id=" + id + ", quote=" + quote + "]";
	}	
}

[Maxim Karvonen]

Hi, Rajesh

This is a very good question.

The type of the value variable is not what you expect! It is not your webservice.Value. It is com.fasterxml.jackson.annotation.JsonFormat.Value. That's why toString in the webservice.Value is never called - these values have never been part of the Quote.
Imported type always shadows types in the same package, see JLS, 6.4.1. Relevant section:

A single-static-import declaration d in a compilation unit c of package p that imports a type named n shadows, throughout c, the declarations of:
* ...
* any top level type (§7.6) named n declared in another compilation unit (§7.3) of p;

In your example solution is simple: just remove an offending import. If it is not possible (both classes are needed), you have to use fully-qualified names (i.e. full type name with its package) for all but one types with the same simple name (and you could import only that required one).