Is there any way to define a constant value to Java at compile time

Question

When I used to write libraries in C/C++ I got into the habit of having a method to return the compile date/time. This was always a compiled into the library so would differe

Answer 1

I remember seeing something similar in an open source project:

class Version... {
  public static String tstamp() {
    return "@BUILDTIME@";
  }
}

in a template file. With Ant's filtering copy you can give this macro a value:

use this to create a Version.java source file in your build process, before the compilation step.