How to use PropertyResourceBundle with keys containing whitespaces

Question

I want to use properties files through PropertyResourceBundle for i18n. My current issue is that keys on the files I have can include white spaces, e.g. :

key number 1 = value number 1
key2 = value2

So, when I load the corresponding property file the first white space is used as the key-value delimiter instead of the '=' sign.

Then, my questions are: how can I use a key with white spaces in it without modifying the properties file (I'd like to avoid adding any slash or unicode character code)? Is there any way to override the default properties file delimiter so I can set '=' as the only one to be considered?

Answer 1

you will have to write your own Properties class, the one in the jdk considers white space as a separator, here is it's code. you'll find out that as soon as it encounter a white space it stop the key & start the value.

private void load0 (LineReader lr) throws IOException {
    char[] convtBuf = new char[1024];
    int limit;
    int keyLen;
    int valueStart;
    char c;
    boolean hasSep;
    boolean precedingBackslash;

    while ((limit = lr.readLine()) >= 0) {
        c = 0;
        keyLen = 0;
        valueStart = limit;
        hasSep = false;

        //System.out.println("line=<" + new String(lineBuf, 0, limit) + ">");
        precedingBackslash = false;
        while (keyLen < limit) {
            c = lr.lineBuf[keyLen];
            //need check if escaped.
            if ((c == '=' ||  c == ':') && !precedingBackslash) {
                valueStart = keyLen + 1;
                hasSep = true;
                break;
            } else if ((c == ' ' || c == '\t' ||  c == '\f') && !precedingBackslash) {
                valueStart = keyLen + 1;
                break;
            }
            if (c == '\\') {
                precedingBackslash = !precedingBackslash;
            } else {
                precedingBackslash = false;
            }
            keyLen++;
        }
        while (valueStart < limit) {
            c = lr.lineBuf[valueStart];
            if (c != ' ' && c != '\t' &&  c != '\f') {
                if (!hasSep && (c == '=' ||  c == ':')) {
                    hasSep = true;
                } else {
                    break;
                }
            }
            valueStart++;
        }
        String key = loadConvert(lr.lineBuf, 0, keyLen, convtBuf);
        String value = loadConvert(lr.lineBuf, valueStart, limit - valueStart, convtBuf);
        put(key, value);
    }
}