JavaProperties (.properties)

Background & Context

- Configuration file format.
- Commonly used in Java projects.
- Associates string keys to string values.
- Plain text format.
- Uses ISO Latin-1 character encoding.

Import ["file.properties"] returns a representation of a properties file as an Association .
Import ["file","JavaProperties"] returns a representation of a file as a properties file.
Import ["file.properties",elem] returns the specified data representation of a properties file.
See the following reference pages for full general information:
Import , Export import from or export to a file

CloudImport , CloudExport import from or export to a cloud object

ImportString , ExportString import from or export to a string

ImportByteArray , ExportByteArray import from or export to a byte array

General Import elements:
"Elements" list of elements and options available in this file

"Summary" summary of the file

"Rules" list of rules for all available elements
Data representation elements:
"Data" data as an association

"DataRules" data as a list of rules

"CommentedData" data as a list of sections as rules, and comments as strings
The "JavaProperties" format exports elements of an association or a list.
"JavaProperties" treats an association as a list of properties. Keys and values are converted to strings using InputForm .
"JavaProperties" accepts lists containing a mixture of rules and strings. Rules are exported as properties; strings are exported as commented lines.
"JavaProperties" uses "ISOLatin1" (or "ISO8859-1") character encoding.
Unicode codepoints outside the ISO Latin-1 range are represented as "\uNNNN", where NNNN is the four-digit hexadecimal representation of the codepoint value.
A commented line starts with "!" or "#".
Values can span multiple lines. Each continuation line must end with a non-commented \.
The characters #, :, =, !, \, \t and \f are escaped with a preceding \.
Spaces are escaped when encountered in a key.
Newline characters are escaped when encountered in a value.

Export an association as a Java properties string:

Create a properties file:

Import it as a Java properties file:

Create properties file with comments:

Import the data only, as an Association :

Import the data and the comments:

Spaces appearing in keys are escaped:

Values can span on more than one line:

Special characters are formatted with the hexadecimal notation:

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Introduced in 2017 (11.1)