根据条件调用某些方法

Question

I recently wrote this piece of code:

  public Object getProperty(String key) {
    if (this.plugin.getConfig().isBoolean(key)) {
      return this.plugin.getConfig().getBoolean(key);
    } else if (this.plugin.getConfig().isColor(key)) {
      return this.plugin.getConfig().getColor(key);
    } else if (this.plugin.getConfig().isConfigurationSection(key)) {
      return this.plugin.getConfig().getConfigurationSection(key);
    } else if (this.plugin.getConfig().isDouble(key)) {
      return this.plugin.getConfig().getDouble(key);
    } else if (this.plugin.getConfig().isInt(key)) {
      return this.plugin.getConfig().getInt(key);
    } else if (this.plugin.getConfig().isItemStack(key)) {
      return this.plugin.getConfig().getItemStack(key);
    } else if (this.plugin.getConfig().isList(key)) {
      return this.plugin.getConfig().getList(key);
    } else if (this.plugin.getConfig().isLong(key)) {
      return this.plugin.getConfig().getLong(key);
    } else if (this.plugin.getConfig().isOfflinePlayer(key)) {
      return this.plugin.getConfig().getOfflinePlayer(key);
    } else if (this.plugin.getConfig().isPrimitiveWrapper(key)) {
      return this.plugin.getConfig().getPrimitiveWrapper(key);
    } else if (this.plugin.getConfig().isSet(key)) {
      return this.plugin.getConfig().getSet(key);
    } else if (this.plugin.getConfig().isString(key)) {
      return this.plugin.getConfig().getString(key);
    } else if (this.plugin.getConfig().isVector(key)) {
      return this.plugin.getConfig().getVector(key);
    }
  }

As you can see, it is super repetitive and very ugly.

Is there a better way it can be written?

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plugin.getConfig() returns one of these . I want to make a method that, when given a path ( key ) which points at some value in a YAML file, I can return that value no matter what its type is.

Answer 1

Instead of all of this mumbo jumbo, why don't you simply write this:

public Object getProperty(String key) {
    return this.plugin.getConfig().get(key);
}

This is especially because you are in the end returning just an Object . So better return what you get from the YAML.

If you do want to make your client's life easy, try exposing the methods of ConfigurationSection individually rather than combine them.

The standard practice here, is dependent on the type of client for this code. If the client will directly use the various types of properties by casting them to the actual classes, then you expose the different methods from ConfigurationSection . however, if the immediate client is simply going to pass the properties on to other classes, then its best to expose just the single method