Autovalue

Autovalue or simple POJO

Intention:

Try com.google.auto.value, is it really useful?

Description:

I had a discussion about boilerplate code and its impact on the readability/component weight/unit test coverage.

Is it really useful?  

Below is listed a simple example of a bean annotated with AutoValue, which during build phase automatically entire bean + it's builder is generated with equals/hashcode/toString.

	package eca.test.wrappers;
	import com.google.auto.value.AutoValue;
	import com.google.common.base.Optional;
	@AutoValue
	public abstract class RequestWrapper {
	public abstract String getName();
	public abstract String getSurname();
	abstract public Optional<String> getPhone();
	abstract public Optional<String> getGroup();
	public static Builder builder() {
	return new AutoValue_RequestWrapper.Builder()
	.setPhone(Optional.<String>absent())
	.setGroup(Optional.<String>absent());
	}
	@AutoValue.Builder
	public abstract static class Builder {
	public abstract Builder setName(String value);
	public abstract Builder setSurname(String value);
	abstract Builder setPhone(Optional<String> value);
	public Builder setPhone(String value) {
	return setPhone(Optional.fromNullable(value));
	}
	abstract Builder setGroup(Optional<String> value);
	public Builder setGroup(String value) {
	return setGroup(Optional.fromNullable(value));
	}
	public abstract RequestWrapper build();
	}
	}

view raw AutoValue.java hosted with ❤ by GitHub

	package eca.test.wrappers;
	import com.google.common.base.Optional;
	import javax.annotation.Generated;
	@Generated("com.google.auto.value.processor.AutoValueProcessor")
	final class AutoValue_RequestWrapper extends RequestWrapper {
	private final String name;
	private final String surname;
	private final Optional<String> phone;
	private final Optional<String> group;
	private AutoValue_RequestWrapper(
	String name,
	String surname,
	Optional<String> phone,
	Optional<String> group) {
	if (name == null) {
	throw new NullPointerException("Null name");
	}
	this.name = name;
	if (surname == null) {
	throw new NullPointerException("Null surname");
	}
	this.surname = surname;
	this.phone = phone;
	this.group = group;
	}
	@Override
	public String getName() {
	return name;
	}
	@Override
	public String getSurname() {
	return surname;
	}
	@Override
	public Optional<String> getPhone() {
	return phone;
	}
	@Override
	public Optional<String> getGroup() {
	return group;
	}
	@Override
	public String toString() {
	return "RequestWrapper{"
	+ "name=" + name + ", "
	+ "surname=" + surname + ", "
	+ "phone=" + phone + ", "
	+ "group=" + group
	+ "}";
	}
	@Override
	public boolean equals(Object o) {
	if (o == this) {
	return true;
	}
	if (o instanceof RequestWrapper) {
	RequestWrapper that = (RequestWrapper) o;
	return (this.name.equals(that.getName()))
	&& (this.surname.equals(that.getSurname()))
	&& ((this.phone == null) ? (that.getPhone() == null) : this.phone.equals(that.getPhone()))
	&& ((this.group == null) ? (that.getGroup() == null) : this.group.equals(that.getGroup()));
	}
	return false;
	}
	@Override
	public int hashCode() {
	int h = 1;
	h *= 1000003;
	h ^= name.hashCode();
	h *= 1000003;
	h ^= surname.hashCode();
	h *= 1000003;
	h ^= (phone == null) ? 0 : phone.hashCode();
	h *= 1000003;
	h ^= (group == null) ? 0 : group.hashCode();
	return h;
	}
	static final class Builder extends RequestWrapper.Builder {
	private String name;
	private String surname;
	private Optional<String> phone;
	private Optional<String> group;
	Builder() {
	}
	Builder(RequestWrapper source) {
	this.name = source.getName();
	this.surname = source.getSurname();
	this.phone = source.getPhone();
	this.group = source.getGroup();
	}
	@Override
	public RequestWrapper.Builder setName(String name) {
	this.name = name;
	return this;
	}
	@Override
	public RequestWrapper.Builder setSurname(String surname) {
	this.surname = surname;
	return this;
	}
	@Override
	public RequestWrapper.Builder setPhone(Optional<String> phone) {
	this.phone = phone;
	return this;
	}
	@Override
	public RequestWrapper.Builder setGroup(Optional<String> group) {
	this.group = group;
	return this;
	}
	@Override
	public RequestWrapper build() {
	String missing = "";
	if (name == null) {
	missing += " name";
	}
	if (surname == null) {
	missing += " surname";
	}
	if (!missing.isEmpty()) {
	throw new IllegalStateException("Missing required properties:" + missing);
	}
	return new AutoValue_RequestWrapper(
	this.name,
	this.surname,
	this.phone,
	this.group);
	}
	}
	}

view raw AutoValue_RequestWrapper.java hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Conclusion:

In case the model is really simple it might be useful, but when it has variation of references/nulable/ or custom validation than I would say it does not bring a lot of value.

References:

Git: https://github.com/ecararus/autovalue
Documentation: https://github.com/google/auto/tree/master/value