Spring .properties file: get element as an Array

Question

I'm loading properties attributes from a .properties file using Spring as follows:

file: elements.properties
base.module.elementToSearch=1
base.module.elementToSearch=2
base.module.elementToSearch=3
base.module.elementToSearch=4
base.module.elementToSearch=5
base.module.elementToSearch=6

The spring xml file

file: myapplication.xml
<bean id="some"
      class="com.some.Class">
      <property name="property" value="#{base.module.elementToSearch}" />
</bean>

And my Class.java

file: Class.java
public void setProperty(final List<Integer> elements){
    this.elements = elements;
}

But when debugging, the parameter elements only get the last element into the list, so, there is a list of one element with value "6", instead of a list with 6 elements.

I tried other approaches, like adding in value only #{base.module} but then it finds no parameter in the properties file.

A workaround is to have in elements.properties file a list separated by commas, like:

base.module.elementToSearch=1,2,3,4,5,6

and use it as a String and parse it, but is there a better solution?

Answer 1

If you define your array in properties file like:

base.module.elementToSearch=1,2,3,4,5,6

You can load such array in your Java class like this:

  @Value("${base.module.elementToSearch}")
  private String[] elementToSearch;

Answer 2

Here is an example of how you can do it in Spring 4.0+

application.properties content:

some.key=yes,no,cancel

Java Code:

@Autowire
private Environment env;

...

String[] springRocks = env.getProperty("some.key", String[].class);

Answer 3

And incase you a different delimiter other than comma, you can use that as well.

@Value("#{'${my.config.values}'.split(',')}")
private String[] myValues;   // could also be a List<String>

and

in your application properties you could have

my.config.values=value1, value2, value3