Saving Properties as XML

Storing Properties in a XML File

The way you store properties files as XML files is very similar to the way you would store them as .properties files. Just instead of using the store() you would use storeToXML().

public void saveProperties(String location) throws IOException{
    // make new instance of properties
    Properties prop = new Properties();
    
    // set the property values
    prop.setProperty("name", "Steve");
    prop.setProperty("color", "green");
    prop.setProperty("age", "23");
    
    // check to see if the file already exists
    File file = new File(location);
    if (!file.exists()){
        file.createNewFile();
    }
    
    // save the properties
    prop.storeToXML(new FileOutputStream(file), "testing properties with xml");
}

When you open the file it will look like this.

Loading Properties from a XML File

Now to load this file as a properties you need to call the loadFromXML() instead of the load() that you would use with regular .propeties files.

public static void loadProperties(String location) throws FileNotFoundException, IOException{
    // make new properties instance to load the file into
    Properties prop = new Properties();
    
    // check to make sure the file exists
    File file = new File(location);
    if (file.exists()){
        // load the file
        prop.loadFromXML(new FileInputStream(file));
        
        // print out all the properties
        for (String name : prop.stringPropertyNames()){
            System.out.println(name + "=" + prop.getProperty(name));
        }
    } else {
        System.err.println("Error: No file found at: " + location);
    }
}

When you run this code you will get the following in the console:

age=23
color=green
name=Steve

Found a mistake? Have a question or improvement idea? Let me know.

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