ParamLiner

A lightweight, zero-dependency Java utility for parsing command-line style strings into parameters, with intelligent handling of quoted strings.

Features

• Simple Parsing: Splits strings into parameters while preserving quoted text as single tokens.
• Configurable Flags: Supports various parsing modes (condense whitespace, ignore quotes, trim quoted params).
• Low Overhead: No external dependencies, minimal memory footprint.
• Thread-Safe: Immutable instances are thread-safe; mutable via setters.

Usage

Basic Example

ParamLiner parser = new ParamLiner();
String[] params = parser.parse("command param1 \"param2 with spaces\" param3");
// Output: ["command", "param1", "param2 with spaces", "param3"]

With Flags

ParamLiner parser = new ParamLiner(ParamLiner.CONDENSE_ALL | ParamLiner.TRIM_ALL_ANSWERS);
String[] params = parser.parse("command   \"  param2 with spaces  \"   param3");
// Output: ["command", "param2 with spaces", "param3"]

Available Flags

• CONDENSE_ALL: Condense all whitespace before parsing.
• IGNORE_QUOTES: Treat quotes as regular characters.
• TRIM_ALL_ANSWERS: Trim whitespace from quoted parameters.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Java JDK 17 or higher
• Apache Maven (optional, but recommended)

Clone and Build with Maven

The easiest way to get started is to clone the repository and build it using Maven.

git clone https://github.com/zarterstein/ParamLiner.git
cd ParamLiner
mvn clean install

Direct Use

Since ParamLiner has no external dependencies, you can also simply copy ParamLiner.java directly into your project's source tree.

Building and Testing

Build with Maven

mvn clean compile

Run Unit Tests (Maven)

mvn test

Run Console Tests

mvn compile exec:java -Dexec.mainClass="com.zarterstein.ParamLiner.ParamLinerTestConsole" -Dexec.classpathScope="test"

Alternative: Standard Java Compilation

If you prefer not to use Maven:

Compile

javac src/main/java/com/zarterstein/ParamLiner/ParamLiner.java -d target/classes

Run Console Tests

javac -cp target/classes src/test/java/com/zarterstein/ParamLiner/ParamLinerTestConsole.java -d target/test-classes
java -cp target/classes;target/test-classes com.zarterstein.ParamLiner.ParamLinerTestConsole

API Reference

See Javadocs in the source code for detailed method documentation.

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please submit issues or pull requests on GitHub.

License

MIT License

Credits

• Java code: Human-written
• Javadocs and README: Generated with LLM assistance