OptionManager supports four types of options: toggles (for instance, -q to turn on "quiet mode"); key/value pairs separated by spaces (such as "-f myfile" to load myfile); key=value pairs (e.g., "user=paul" -- the separating punctuation can be any specified character); and position arguments (such as using the third argument as the target directory). Options can be Integer, Long, Double, Boolean or String. Keys can be case-sensitive or case-insensitive.
A segment from the test program illustrates its use:
package commandLine;
//...
public static void main(String[] args) {
// create an option manager
String delimiter = "~"; // instead of key=value, we'll use key~value
boolean caseSensitive = true; // keys will be case-sensitive
OptionManager opt = new OptionManager(delimiter, caseSensitive); // create the option manager
// create some options
try {
opt.declareKeyvalPairOption("opt_a", "-a", String.class, "an a");
// string-valued; typical use: "-a some_string"; default value "an a"
opt.declareKeyvalPairOption("opt_A", "-A", Integer.class, 17);
// integer-valued; typical use "-A some_number"; default value 17
// using both -a and -A would not work with case-sensitivity turned off
opt.declareKeyvalStringOption("name", "name", String.class, null);
// string-valued; typical use "name~my_name"; default is a null string
opt.declarePositionalOption("posOpt0", 0, Double.class, 37);
// double-valued; assigns the first argument not attached to a key; default 37.0
opt.declarePositionalOption("posOpt1", 1, Long.class, Long.MAX_VALUE);
// long-valued; assigns the second argument not attached to a key; default a very big integer
opt.declareToggleOption("toggle", "-xon", "-xoff", Boolean.class, true, false, null);
// boolean-valued; -xon toggles the option to true, -xoff toggles it to false
} catch (OptionManagerException ex) {
// deal with construction problems here
}
opt.parse(args); // parse the command line
try {
// fetch the option values and display the results
System.out.println("opt_a = <" + opt.fetchString("opt_a") + ">");
System.out.println("opt_A = <" + opt.fetchInt("opt_A") + ">");
System.out.println("name = <" + opt.fetchString("name") + ">");
System.out.println("posOpt0 = <" + opt.fetchDouble("posOpt0") + ">");
System.out.println("posOpt1 = <" + opt.fetchLong("posOpt1") + ">");
System.out.println("toggle is " + opt.fetchBool("toggle"));
String[] excess = opt.excessArguments();
// if the command line contained arguments in addition to those parsed
// (perhaps attempts to use non-existent options, or misspelled keys)
// the excessArguments method will return them as strings
if (excess.length > 0) {
// deal with the excess arguments
}
} catch (OptionManagerException ex) {
// deal with problems parsing arguments here
}
}
//...
public static void main(String[] args) {
// create an option manager
String delimiter = "~"; // instead of key=value, we'll use key~value
boolean caseSensitive = true; // keys will be case-sensitive
OptionManager opt = new OptionManager(delimiter, caseSensitive); // create the option manager
// create some options
try {
opt.declareKeyvalPairOption("opt_a", "-a", String.class, "an a");
// string-valued; typical use: "-a some_string"; default value "an a"
opt.declareKeyvalPairOption("opt_A", "-A", Integer.class, 17);
// integer-valued; typical use "-A some_number"; default value 17
// using both -a and -A would not work with case-sensitivity turned off
opt.declareKeyvalStringOption("name", "name", String.class, null);
// string-valued; typical use "name~my_name"; default is a null string
opt.declarePositionalOption("posOpt0", 0, Double.class, 37);
// double-valued; assigns the first argument not attached to a key; default 37.0
opt.declarePositionalOption("posOpt1", 1, Long.class, Long.MAX_VALUE);
// long-valued; assigns the second argument not attached to a key; default a very big integer
opt.declareToggleOption("toggle", "-xon", "-xoff", Boolean.class, true, false, null);
// boolean-valued; -xon toggles the option to true, -xoff toggles it to false
} catch (OptionManagerException ex) {
// deal with construction problems here
}
opt.parse(args); // parse the command line
try {
// fetch the option values and display the results
System.out.println("opt_a = <" + opt.fetchString("opt_a") + ">");
System.out.println("opt_A = <" + opt.fetchInt("opt_A") + ">");
System.out.println("name = <" + opt.fetchString("name") + ">");
System.out.println("posOpt0 = <" + opt.fetchDouble("posOpt0") + ">");
System.out.println("posOpt1 = <" + opt.fetchLong("posOpt1") + ">");
System.out.println("toggle is " + opt.fetchBool("toggle"));
String[] excess = opt.excessArguments();
// if the command line contained arguments in addition to those parsed
// (perhaps attempts to use non-existent options, or misspelled keys)
// the excessArguments method will return them as strings
if (excess.length > 0) {
// deal with the excess arguments
}
} catch (OptionManagerException ex) {
// deal with problems parsing arguments here
}
}
Update: I've added some new capabilities (and spruced up the included test program a bit).
Update #2: The utility, which also includes methods to parse file specifications with wildcards and find matching files, is now available from Sourceforge under the name JCLILIB, still under the Apache 2.0 license.
