What is the use of toString method in Java and how can I use it

Question

I need to understand the concept of the toString() method, defined in the Object class in JAVA? Also how is it used, and what purpose does it serve ?

Answer 1

The toString() method returns a textual representation of an object. A basic implementation is already included in java.lang.Object and so because all objects inherit from java.lang.Object it is guaranteed that every object in Java has this method.

There is no set requirement for what a toString() method should do. By convention, most often it will tell you the name of the class and the value of pertinent data members. More often than not, toString() methods are auto-generated in IDEs.

For example, the following

public final class Coordinates {

    private final double x;
    private final double y;

    public Coordinates(double x, double y) {
        this.x = x;
        this.y = y;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Coordinates coordinates = new Coordinates(1, 2);
        System.out.println("Bourne's current location - " + coordinates);
    }
}

prints

Bourne's current location - Coordinates@addbf1 //concise, but not really useful to the reader

Now, overriding toString() in the Coordinates class as below,

@Override
public String toString() {
    return "(" + x + ", " + y + ")";
}

results in

Bourne's current location - (1.0, 2.0) //concise and informative

The usefulness of overriding toString() becomes even more when the method is invoked on collections containing references to these objects. For example, the following

public static void main(String[] args) {
    Coordinates bourneLocation = new Coordinates(90, 0);
    Coordinates bondLocation = new Coordinates(45, 90);
    Map<String, Coordinates> locations = new HashMap<String, Coordinates>();
    locations.put("Jason Bourne", bourneLocation);
    locations.put("James Bond", bondLocation);
    System.out.println(locations);
}

prints

{James Bond=(45.0, 90.0), Jason Bourne=(90.0, 0.0)}

instead of this,

{James Bond=Coordinates@addbf1, Jason Bourne=Coordinates@42e816}

Answer 2

Whenever you require to explore the constructor called value in the String form, you can simply use String toString() method.

import java.util.*;

class Bank {

    String n;
    String add;
    int an;
    int bal;
    int dep;

    public Bank(String n, String add, int an, int bal) {

        this.add = add;
        this.bal = bal;
        this.an = an;
        this.n = n;

    }

public String toString() {
        return "Name of the customer.:" + this.n + ",, "
                + "Address of the customer.:" + this.add + ",, " + "A/c no..:"
                + this.an + ",, " + "Balance in A/c..:" + this.bal;
    }
}

public class Demo2 {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        List<Bank> l = new LinkedList<Bank>();

        Bank b1 = new Bank("naseem1", "Darbhanga,bihar", 123, 1000);
        Bank b2 = new Bank("naseem2", "patna,bihar", 124, 1500);
        Bank b3 = new Bank("naseem3", "madhubani,bihar", 125, 1600);
        Bank b4 = new Bank("naseem4", "samastipur,bihar", 126, 1700);
        Bank b5 = new Bank("naseem5", "muzafferpur,bihar", 127, 1800);
        l.add(b1);
        l.add(b2);
        l.add(b3);
        l.add(b4);
        l.add(b5);

Iterator<Bank> i = l.iterator();
        while (i.hasNext()) {
            System.out.println(i.next());
        }
    }

}