How can I store faq's information in a java .properties file?

Question

I have a bunch of questions and answers that I need to store in a java .properties file. How can I do this easily?

I was thinking something like

faq.question.1 = This is question 1.
faq.question.2 = This is question 2.
faq.question.3 = This is question 3.

faq.answers.1 = This is answer 1.
faq.answers.2 = This is answer 2.
faq.answers.2 = This is answer 3.

Is this the best way to store the questions/answers in a properties file? Can I use numbers to delineate between the different questions/answers?

Answer 1

Your approach will work.

However, assuming:

• the files are dedicated, arbitrary buckets of FAQs
• do not require localization
• do not require an ordering that cannot be inferred from the question (eg alphabetical)
• do not require context-based filtering (eg on an id number)

...consider using the question as the key:

question=answer

If you intend to hand-edit these files be aware of the requirements of the file format. For the question Question: 'Hello World' == what in Japanese? and the answer Answer — 'Hello World' == 'こんにちは世界' the standard ISO-8859-1 stored form would be:

Question\:\ 'Hello\ World'\ \=\=\ what\ in\ Japanese?=Answer \u2014 'Hello World' \=\= '\u3053\u3093\u306B\u3061\u306F\u4E16\u754C'

Otherwise, consider a format like JSON or XML that allows greater correlation of question to answer and the addition of other properties:

[{
  "question":"Question: 'Hello World' == what in Japanese?",
  "answer":"Answer — 'Hello World' == 'こんにちは世界'"
}]

If you have a web-based application where FAQs need to be updated without rebuild and deployment overhead use a database.

Answer 2

If you have to store faq in properties file consider to change key with a question. Like this:

This is question 1. = This is answer 1.
This is question 2. = This is answer 2.