How do I parse command line arguments in Java?

Question

What is a good way of parsing command line arguments in Java?

Answer 1

If you want something lightweight (jar size ~ 20 kb) and simple to use, you can try argument-parser. It can be used in most of the use cases, supports specifying arrays in the argument and has no dependency on any other library. It works for Java 1.5 or above. Below excerpt shows an example on how to use it:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    String usage = "--day|-d day --mon|-m month [--year|-y year][--dir|-ds directoriesToSearch]";
    ArgumentParser argParser = new ArgumentParser(usage, InputData.class);
    InputData inputData = (InputData) argParser.parse(args);
    showData(inputData);

    new StatsGenerator().generateStats(inputData);
}

More examples can be found here