Convert single char in String to lower case

Question

I like to 'guess' attribute names from getter methods. So 'getSomeAttribute' shall be converted to 'someAttribute'.

Usually I do something like

String attributeName = Character.toLowerCase(methodName.indexOf(3)) 
                       + methodName.substring(4);

Pretty ugly, right? I usually hide it in a method, but does anybody know a better solution?

For a large application I want to auto generate a huge set of wsdl's and xml schema's to put a SOAP interface next to the existing JMS. Pretty difficult in this case - I have to parse source files and reflect libraries... At least there's a (custom) naming convention for attributes and getter, so with the method name I can test or reflect some fields — Andreas Dolk, May 12 '09 at 14:32
If you can use refection, then you can get the actual variable names. — Milhous, May 12 '09 at 17:14

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered May 12 '09 at 14:20

4

The uncapitalize method of Commons Lang shall help you, but I don't think your solution is so crude.

answered May 12 '09 at 14:20

Valentin Rocher

11,667
45
59

Tim Büthe · Answer 2 · 2009-05-12T14:28:38.833

3

uncapitalize from commons lang would do it:

String attributeName = StringUtils.uncapitalize(methodName.substring(3));

I need commons lang a lot, but if you don't like that extra jar, you could copy the method. As you can see in it, they doin' it like you:

public static String uncapitalize(String str) {
    int strLen;
    if (str == null || (strLen = str.length()) == 0) {
        return str;
    }
    return new StringBuffer(strLen)
        .append(Character.toLowerCase(str.charAt(0)))
        .append(str.substring(1))
        .toString();
}

edited May 12 '09 at 14:28

answered May 12 '09 at 14:22

Tim Büthe

62,884
17
92
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This would yield "someattribute" instead of "someAttribute". – Paul Brinkley May 12 '09 at 14:23
just saw, fixed that by suggesting commons lang – Tim Büthe May 12 '09 at 14:26
I think that's what I'm going to do. Even though it's the same solution 'under the hood'. Can't vote up, because I've not enough reputation yet. So please accept my verbose thumbs up! – Andreas Dolk May 12 '09 at 14:37

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered May 12 '09 at 14:28

Have a look at the JavaBeans API:

BeanInfo info = Introspector.getBeanInfo(bean
       .getClass(), Object.class);
for (PropertyDescriptor propertyDesc : info
       .getPropertyDescriptors()) {
  String name = propertyDesc.getName();
}

Also see decapitalize.

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 21 '14 at 04:48

2

Given a character buffer, you can apply the below code:

int i = 0;
for(char x : buffer) {
    buffer[i] = Character.toLowerCase(x);
    i++;
}

Tested and functions :)

answered Jan 21 '14 at 04:48

DeadDingo

21
1

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered May 12 '09 at 18:47

2

Its worth remembering that;

not all getXXX methods are getters e.g. double getSqrt(double x), void getup().
methods which return boolean, start with is and don't take an argument can be a getter, e.g. boolean isActive().

answered May 12 '09 at 18:47

Peter Lawrey

525,659
79
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1,130

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered May 12 '09 at 14:22

Looks fine to me. Yes, it looks verbose, but consider what you're trying to do, and what another programmer would think if they were trying to understand what this code is trying to do. If anything, I'd make it longer, by adding what you're doing (guessing attribute names from getter methods) as a comment.

Convert single char in String to lower case

6 Answers6

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