Eclipse template variable for getter and setter

Question

I have a small question. I'm trying to create templates for getters for my variables inside of Eclipse. What I want to do in my getter method is to check if the variable is null or not. If it is null I want to assign a value to it. However the problem is I need to cast the return value of the method to the getter return type. I couldn't manage it. Here is the code that I'd like to have:

Integer someInt;
Double someDoub;
Long someLong;

public Integer getSomeInt(){
    if(someInt == null) someInt = (Integer) new Generator().evaluate();
    return someInt;
}

public Double getSomeDoub(){
    if(someDoub == null) someDoub = (Double) new Generator().evaluate();
    return someDoub;
}

This is the code that I want to generate. Here is what I typed as a template:

if( ${field} == null){
    ${field} = ( ${return_type} ) new Generator().evaluate();
}
return ${field};

As soon as I type this. Eclipse says that return_type is unknown. Please help.

Thank you very much for your time.

Answer 1

Eclipse doesn't provide a way to do this in getter/setter code templates (i.e., the ones that the "Generate Getters and Setters" tool uses). The variables on the "Insert Variable" list are the only ones supported.

${return_type} is only available for use in regular templates (i.e., the type you might invoke using code completion hotkeys).

As a possible workaround, you could create a generified static factory method to produce the default objects, avoiding the need for a cast:

public class MyBean {
    Integer someInt;
    Double someDoub;

    public Integer getSomeInt(){
        if (someInt == null) someInt = GeneratorUtil.createAndEvaluate();
        return someInt;
    }

    public Double getSomeDoub(){
        if (someDoub == null) someDoub = GeneratorUtil().createAndEvaluate();
        return someDoub;
    }
}

public class GeneratorUtil {
    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    public static <T> T createAndEvaluate() {
        return (T) new Generator().evaluate();
    }
}

Does your Generator class use some type of reflection to determine what type of object to generate?