boolean (Boolean) - getter is vs get

Hubert picture Hubert · Feb 18, 2014 · Viewed 7.7k times · Source

It looks like everyone says that right getter for:

  • primitive boolean -> getter is
  • object Boolean -> getter get

Example:

public class Test {

    private boolean primitive;
    private Boolean object;

    public boolean isPrimitive() {
         return primitive;
    }
    public Boolean getObject() {
        return object;
    }
    //..
}

Question:

Is there any spec or document that states this is correct and this is the way to specify getters for boolean values? Or this is only a common assumption?

I'm asking becouse for example wsimport generates getter is for Boolean object. Is this a tool bug, or this is allowed and correct?

In the other hand some framweorks don't work properly with such getters. For example JSF (EL) or Dozer.

Answer

Vincent Cantin picture Vincent Cantin · Feb 18, 2014

The getter method for the field boolean myField is getMyfield() or isMyField() (it's up to the user to choose). I personally use the second format, as many source code generating tools do.

This format is a standard, it is defined in the JavaBeans specification. See the section 8.3.2 of this documentation: http://download.oracle.com/otndocs/jcp/7224-javabeans-1.01-fr-spec-oth-JSpec/

Quote from the docs:

In addition, for boolean properties, we allow a getter method to match the pattern:

  public boolean is<PropertyName>();

The documentation doesn't talk about the primitive wrappers like the Boolean class.