Does Java MessageFormat have a platform lineseparator like String.format does?

Solution 1:

Does Java MessageFormat have a platform lineseparator like String.format does?

According to my reading of the code, the answer is No.

And there aren't any extant RFEs or Bug reports about this that I can see in the Java or OpenJDK Bug trackers¹.

However, as Joop notes, since you are actually asking this in the context of logging, there are a few other ways to solve this (though not all will be practical):

• Ignore the problem. These messages are going into log files. Maybe it doesn't really matter that the line separators in messages in the log files don't always match the platform.
• Create a custom subclass of MessageFormat that recognizes a syntax that means "platform specific line separator".
• Handle the line separators by translating them in a custom log message appender or formatter; e.g.
  • Translate all line separators of the "wrong kind".
  • Recognize and translate a magic character sequence ...
• Change to a different logging framework that uses java.util.Formatter for message construction. AFAIK, most modern frameworks do.
• Submit an RFE.

^{1 - You could read that as "evidence" of how little use there is of MessageFormat in real world / modern applications, or how few people use it in contexts where line separators matter.}

@Bohemian commented:

Why do you want to avoid "passing System.lineseparator as an argument"?

I would have thought that was self-evident. It is clunky.