JavaFX - Operations on Strings

Use any quote you like

Ok, so let's start with Strings. You can use both single and double quote to define simple String. Both works:

var a = 'Single';
var b = "Double";

Also you can use another quote in String as part of this String. I.e. if you use single quote to declare String, you can put double quote inside, and if you use double one, you can put single one inside.

var a = 'This is String "with double quote" inside';
var b = "This is String 'with single quote' inside";

Both are valid Strings. However, if you need to use both types in your String, you have to escape it:

var a = 'Here we have "double quotes" and \'single quotes\' in one String';
var b = "And 'here' \"too!\""

Expressions in String

In JavaFX you can also embed expressions in Strings. To do it, put expression in curly brackets:

println("2 + 3 = {2+3}");

This code prints: 2 + 3 = 5 By the way, you can see new println function here. It is in javafx.lang.Builtins, which is included automatically in all JavaFX scripts.

As expression, you can use also variables, function calls, operations on variables (like in example above) etc.

Concatenation

You don't need any operator to concatenate Strings. If you split String over few lines, you don't have to add "+" at the end of each line.

var one = "This" 'is'
"one"
'String';
println(one);

And it outputs: ThisisoneString

Formatting

You can quite easy format Strings in JavaFX. It is based on java.util.Formatter class.

println("{%x 12}");
println("{%c 120}");
var d = Date{};    //Here new java.util.Date is created
println("{%tH d}:{%tM d}:{%tS d}")

And it prints:
c x 23:12:18 First there is 12 in hex, then there is character, which code in Unicode is 120, and then it is Date object, first we get hour from it, then minute, and then second.

Localization

Localization in JFX is realized by properties files. It's name is connected with your script (file with your JFX code) by name convention. If your script is House.fx, then your localization file is House_en.fxproperties and it has to be somewhere in the classpath. fxproperties file looks like this:

"dog"="pies"
"cat"="kot"

And then, to use it in script:

println(##"dog");
println(##[cat]"Cat");

If there is fxproperties found, it is used. If not found, default is used. Default is either properties key (like "dog" in above example) or another word (like "Cat", not "cat" which is only fxproperties key).

JavaFX - Defining simple variables.

Ok, so I thought to write JavaFX tutorial. Hope it's going to be useful for somebody. Welcome to part one, about language basics, defining variables and values.

First, you should know what variables/value types are available. There are all the familiar ones (String, Long, Double etc.), but no primitives (long, double etc.). Well, in JavaFX everything is an object. Really. There is also one new type: Duration. It is especially useful in animations, but we'll get to it later.

So there are variables and values. Values are a little like final constants in Java, but only a little. Value of value ( ;) ) can change, but you can't change it explicitly. It can be changed by binding - we'll talk about it in some later part.

So how do you define variables and values? Quite simple:

var a:Float = 5;

Defines variable a of type Float. We can also do something like this:

var a = 5;

Where is variable's type? Well, you don't need to specify it in such case. Type is inferred automatically by JavaFX Script compiler from value assigned to this variable. Isn't it obvious that it is Integer? It could be also Float, yes, and if you want it to be Float, please specify it like in first example.

What about "almost-like-java-constants" values? You define it like that:

def a:Float = 5;

So now there is value defined, and you can't change it. a = 6 will not compile.

Ok, let's look at this new Duration type. Few examples:

var s = 5s;
var m = 2m;
var h = 4h;

s is 5 seconds, m is 2 minutes and h is 4 hours. Quite simple, isn't it? Also arithmetics like adding, multiplying etc works here:

var s = 5s * 4;
var m = 2m + 3m;
var h = (2h + 3m) * 4;

Ok, that's all in this part. In the next one I'll write something about String operations and sequences. Stay tuned!