Java Properties File Format Guide
Reference 为 Java。properties file 格式化为 配置和 internationalization.
Format Details
Properties files contain key=value or key:value pairs, one per line. The separator can be =, :, or whitespace. Lines can be continued with a backslash at end. Comments start with # or !. Special characters in keys and values are escaped using Java string escaping (\n, \t, \uXXXX). The format is line-oriented and uses ISO-8859-1 encoding by default, with Unicode escapes for other characters.
- separators
- = : or whitespace
- continuation
- Backslash at line end
- encoding
- ISO-8859-1 default
key=valuemulti-line values\uXXXX escapesUsage Patterns
Properties files are used for Java application configuration and resource bundles (i18n). The ResourceBundle system loads properties files for localization. XML properties format is an alternative supporting UTF-8 natively. Modern Java applications often prefer YAML or HOCON, but properties remain in legacy systems. The format is simple but limited in structure (flat key-value only).
- ResourceBundle
- i18n resource loading
- XML props
- UTF-8 alternative
- limitations
- Flat key-value only
locale-specific filesjava.util.Properties XMLno nesting