Java Question String to Charsequence - What do i need to take care of

[DonManfred]

Asuming i want to change a lib which uses Strings now and i want to change the lib to support Charsequences.

What do i need to take care of? Any known tripping hazards?

Do i simply change all References from String to Charsequence?

 

[corwin42]

In all setters and getters where the library supports CharSequence use also CharSequence for the parameters in your wrapper.

So for AppCompat or DesignSupport I changed some of the wrappers/getters like this:

     /**
     * Set the Tab text.
     */
    public void SetTabText(int Index, CharSequence Text) {
        getObject().getTabAt(Index).setText(Text);
    }

    /**
     * Get the Tab text.
     */
    public CharSequence GetTabText(int Index) {
        return getObject().getTabAt(Index).getText();
    }

 

[Erel]

I guess that it is obvious but remember that it only makes sense to change String to CharSequence when the underlying API (the one that your library calls) supports CharSequence.

I must say that I haven't changed any existing getter that returns String to CharSequence.
For example TextView.Text property:

public String getText() {
     return String.valueOf(getObject().getText());
   }
   public void setText(CharSequence Text) {
     getObject().setText(Text);
   }

I expect it to be safe however as these methods are used by many developers and in all kinds of strange ways (and changing the getter is less important) I decided to leave it like this for now.

 

[corwin42]

Maybe it is better to leave the getters returning Strings.

See here.

I think I will change them back to String to avoid this problem.

 

[Erel]

Good example.