Convert HashMap.toString() back to HashMap in Java

Question

I put a key-value pair in a Java HashMap and converted it to a String using the toString() method.

Is it possible to convert t

Answer 1

It is possible to rebuild a collection out of its string presentation but it will not work if the elements of the collection don't override their own toString method.

Therefore it's much safer and easier to use third party library like XStream which streams objects in human readable XML.