What’s New in Spring 3.0? - Spring Enterprise Recipes: A Problem Solution Approach - page 84

Table 2-1. Expression Language Features

Type Use Example

Literal expression The simplest thing you can do in the

expression language; essentially
the same as if you were writing Java
code. The language supports String
literals as well as all sorts of
numbers.

2342
'Hello Spring Enterprise Recipes'

Boolean and
relational operator

The expression language provides
the ability to evaluate conditionals
using standard idioms from Java.

T(java.lang.Math).random() > .5

Standard expression You can iterate and return the

properties on beans in the same
way you might with Unified EL,
separating each dereferenced
property with a period and using
JavaBean-style naming conventions.
In the example to the right, the
expression would be equivalent to
getCat().getMate().getName() .

cat.mate.name

T() tells the expression language to
act on the type of the class, not an
instance. In the examples on the right,
the first would yield the Class instance
for java.lang.Math -equivalent to
calling java.lang.Math.class .
The second example calls a static
method on a given type. Thus,
T(java.lang.Math).random() is
equivalent to calling
java.lang.Math.random() .

Class expression

T(java.lang.Math)
T(java.lang.Math).random()

Accessing arrays,
lists, maps

You can index lists, arrays, and maps
using brackets and the key—which
for arrays or lists is the index
number, and for maps is an object.
In the examples, you see a
java.util.List with 4 chars being
indexed at index 1, which returns 'b'.
The second example demonstrates
accessing a map by the index 'OR',
yielding the value associated with
that key.

T(java.util.Arrays).asList(
'a','b','c','d')[1]
T(SpelExamplesDemo).MapOfStatesAndCa
pitals['OR']