Where to find a beanshell function reference?
Maybe I'm being a bit dense but I can't find one.
I'm new to Java though I've got experience in a few other languages so it shouldn't be hard to pickup. It's just learning all the new functions that's the time consuming part.
I'm looking for a function reference for the basic and common functions like string manipulation, file manipulation etc. Can anyone point me to one?
The only one I can find in the beanshell docs seems to be for functions/classes specific to the operation of the shell.
I would just recommend the
I would just recommend the actual Java API, found here: http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/
*Almost* everything in the API will work for you in beanshell. I've done most of my Java learning in my scripted coding in screen-scraper, and the Java API has more-often-than-not worked. I would caution against just using a search engine to find Java API stuff, because 9/10 times I Google something, an old version of the API will come up, which very very frequently is missing newer functions, or still has functions listed that have actually been removed from the language.
Most of the searching I do on the Java API is via that bottom-most left-hand frame. It lists all the classes in Java, so searching "String" will of course yield that classname. Upon clicking on it, you'll get some description stuff on the right-hand pane, and all methods within the class and what they do.
Note though that I am convinced that they intentionally wrote the API to be as wordy as possible with a specific lack of example code. It often feels like they were trying to make it as hard as possible to understand how to use certain functions. If you want example code, you're better off google'ing the class name with the word 'example' in your search :)
The classes you've asked about can be found in the API entitled "String" and "FileWriter"/"FileReader". Be aware that depending on your task, Java has dozens of classes that are tuned to certain tasks. If you're not too awfully concerned with efficiency, you could just stick to Java's String class, rather than its multitude of other variants, such as StringBuilder, StringBuffer, etc. Personally, I find them all quite confusing to master, but I complain enough about Java in the office that I feel guilty for doing so on the forums :)
Despite my confusion over Java's many many many classes, I do have a decent grasp on them, so feel free to ask away at any questions you have.
Tim