THE PACKAGE JAVA.UTIL

java.util.Properties

21.6

the key is skipped; if the first non whitespace character after the key is

=

 or

:

, then

it is ignored and any whitespace characters after it are also skipped. All remaining

characters on the line become part of the associated element string. Within the ele 

ment string (but not the key), the ASCII escape sequences

\t

,

\n

,

\r

,

\\

,

\"

,

\'

,

\

(a backslash and a space), and

\u

xxxx

 are recognized and converted to single

characters. Moreover, if the last character on the line is

\

, then the next line is

treated as a continuation of the current line; the

\

 and line terminator are simply

discarded, and any leading whitespace characters on the continuation line are also

discarded and are not part of the element string.

As an example, each of the following four lines specifies the key

"Truth"

 and

the associated element value

"Beauty"

:

Truth Beauty

Truth = Beauty

Truth:Beauty

Truth

:Beauty

As another example, the following three lines specify a single property:

fruits

apple, banana, pear, \

cantaloupe, watermelon, \

kiwi, mango

The key is

"fruit"

 and the associated element is:

"apple, banana, pear, cantaloupe, watermelon, kiwi, mango"

Note that a space appears before each

\

 so that a space will appear after each

comma in the final result; the

\

, line terminator, and leading whitespace on the

continuation line are merely discarded and are

not

 replaced by one or more other

characters.

As a third example, the line:

cheeses

specifies that the key is

"cheeses"

 and the associated element is the empty string.

21.6.8

public void save(OutputStream out, String header)

All the properties (key and element pairs) in this

Properties

 table are written to

the output stream:

Runtime.getRuntime().getLocalizedOutputStream(out)

in a format suitable for loading into a

Properties

 table using the

load

 method

( 21.6.7). See the

getLocalizedOutputStream

 method of

Runtime

( 20.16.16).

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