Is it possible to write a Java printf statement that prints the statement itself?
- by polygenelubricants
Is it possible to have a Java printf statement, whose output is the statement itself?
Some snippet to illustrate:
// attempt #1
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.printf("something");
}
}
This prints something.
So the output of attempt #1 is not quite exactly the printf statement in attempt #1. We can try something like this:
// attempt #2
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.printf("System.out.printf(\"something\");");
}
}
And now the output is System.out.printf("something");
So now the output of attempt #2 matches the statement in output #1, but we're back to the problem we had before, since we need the output of attempt #2 to match the statement in attempt #2.
So is it possible to write a one-line printf statement that prints itself?
