Java – Log4j – Force log message parameters

javalog4j

I am trying to force the detail within log4j messages as opposed to just a string. Ultimately I would like to have something like:

logger.info("component", "error code", " error message");

I may even use an enum for the component.

I would then expect the message to appear in the log as "time – component – code – message"

Any ideas?

Best Answer

A very trivial solution (for this special case):

logger.info(
      String.format("%s - %s - %s", "component", "error code", "error message"));

or in an improved version:

logger.info(createMessage("component", "error code", "error message"));

with

public static String createMessage(
                 String component, String errorCode, String errorMessage) {
   return String.format("%s - %s - %s", 
                 "component", "error code", "error message");
}

For a more general solution, consider wrapping the original Logger class into a custom logger class and implement an info method that takes the three arguments and delegates to internalLogger.info(String message) with the new message based on the input.

Related Solutions

Java – How to send java.util.logging to log4j

One approach I have used successfully is to use slf4j as my primary logging API. I then have slf4j bind to log4j. 3rd party dependencies using other frameworks (like JUL) can be bridged to slf4j.

Java optional parameters

There are several ways to simulate optional parameters in Java:

Method overloading.

void foo(String a, Integer b) { //... }

void foo(String a) { foo(a, 0); // here, 0 is a default value for b }

foo("a", 2); foo("a");

One of the limitations of this approach is that it doesn't work if you have two optional parameters of the same type and any of them can be omitted.

Varargs.

a) All optional parameters are of the same type:

    void foo(String a, Integer... b) {
        Integer b1 = b.length > 0 ? b[0] : 0;
        Integer b2 = b.length > 1 ? b[1] : 0;
        //...
    }

    foo("a");
    foo("a", 1, 2);

b) Types of optional parameters may be different:

    void foo(String a, Object... b) {
        Integer b1 = 0;
        String b2 = "";
        if (b.length > 0) {
          if (!(b[0] instanceof Integer)) { 
              throw new IllegalArgumentException("...");
          }
          b1 = (Integer)b[0];
        }
        if (b.length > 1) {
            if (!(b[1] instanceof String)) { 
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("...");
            }
            b2 = (String)b[1];
            //...
        }
        //...
    }

    foo("a");
    foo("a", 1);
    foo("a", 1, "b2");

The main drawback of this approach is that if optional parameters are of different types you lose static type checking. Furthermore, if each parameter has the different meaning you need some way to distinguish them.

Nulls. To address the limitations of the previous approaches you can allow null values and then analyze each parameter in a method body:

void foo(String a, Integer b, Integer c) { b = b != null ? b : 0; c = c != null ? c : 0; //... }

foo("a", null, 2);

Now all arguments values must be provided, but the default ones may be null.

Optional class. This approach is similar to nulls, but uses Java 8 Optional class for parameters that have a default value:

void foo(String a, Optional bOpt) { Integer b = bOpt.isPresent() ? bOpt.get() : 0; //... }

foo("a", Optional.of(2)); foo("a", Optional.absent());

Optional makes a method contract explicit for a caller, however, one may find such signature too verbose.

Update: Java 8 includes the class java.util.Optional out-of-the-box, so there is no need to use guava for this particular reason in Java 8. The method name is a bit different though.

Builder pattern. The builder pattern is used for constructors and is implemented by introducing a separate Builder class:

class Foo {
    private final String a; 
    private final Integer b;

    Foo(String a, Integer b) {
      this.a = a;
      this.b = b;
    }

    //...
}

class FooBuilder {
  private String a = ""; 
  private Integer b = 0;

  FooBuilder setA(String a) {
    this.a = a;
    return this;
  }

  FooBuilder setB(Integer b) {
    this.b = b;
    return this;
  }

  Foo build() {
    return new Foo(a, b);
  }
}

Foo foo = new FooBuilder().setA("a").build();

Maps. When the number of parameters is too large and for most of the default values are usually used, you can pass method arguments as a map of their names/values:

void foo(Map<String, Object> parameters) { String a = ""; Integer b = 0; if (parameters.containsKey("a")) { if (!(parameters.get("a") instanceof Integer)) { throw new IllegalArgumentException("..."); } a = (Integer)parameters.get("a"); } if (parameters.containsKey("b")) { //... } //... }

foo(ImmutableMap.<String, Object>of( "a", "a", "b", 2, "d", "value"));

In Java 9, this approach became easier:
```
@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
static <T> T getParm(Map<String, Object> map, String key, T defaultValue) {
  return (map.containsKey(key)) ? (T) map.get(key) : defaultValue;
}

void foo(Map<String, Object> parameters) {
  String a = getParm(parameters, "a", "");
  int b = getParm(parameters, "b", 0);
  // d = ...
}

foo(Map.of("a","a",  "b",2,  "d","value"));
```

Please note that you can combine any of these approaches to achieve a desirable result.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

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Java optional parameters

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