Spring SpEL - Assignment Operator

SpEL expression supports assignment of properties using setValue() method as well as using assignment operator.

Following example shows the various use cases.

Example

Let's update the project created in Spring SpEL - Create Project chapter. We're adding/updating following files −

• Employee.java − Employee object.

• MainApp.java − Main application to run and test.

Here is the content of Employee.java file −

package com.tutorialspoint;

public class Employee {
   private String name;
   public String getName() {
      return name;
   }
   public void setName(String name) {
      this.name = name;
   }
}

Here is the content of MainApp.java file −

package com.tutorialspoint;

import java.text.ParseException;
import org.springframework.expression.EvaluationContext;
import org.springframework.expression.ExpressionParser;
import org.springframework.expression.spel.standard.SpelExpressionParser;
import org.springframework.expression.spel.support.StandardEvaluationContext;

public class MainApp {
   public static void main(String[] args) throws ParseException {
      ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();
      Employee employee = new Employee();   
      EvaluationContext employeeContext = new StandardEvaluationContext(employee);

      // Using setValue
      parser.parseExpression("name").setValue(employeeContext, "Mahesh");
      String result = parser.parseExpression("name").getValue(employeeContext, String.class);
      System.out.println(result);

      // Using assignment operator
      result = parser.parseExpression("Name = 'Robert'").getValue(employeeContext, String.class);
      System.out.println(result);
   }
}

Output

Mahesh
Robert