Component Reference

Benerator has lots of predefined generators which are available implicitly from the descriptor. Most of them only need to be created explicitly when using the Benerator API programmatically.

Generators

Domain Generators

For domain-specific generators (e.g. person, address, finance), see Domains.

Generators For Common Id Types

Benerator contains the following common predefined and platform-independent generators:

IncrementalIdGenerator: Creates consecutive id values, starting with 1 by default.
UUIDGenerator: Creates UUIDs by the JDK class java.util.UUID
HibUUIDGenerator: Creates UUIDs like the Hibernate UUID key generator
LocalSequenceGenerator: Mimics the behavior of a (named) database sequence on a single client VM. Its property ' cached' (true by default) specifies if sequence value changes shall be persisted immediately or in the end.

Database-Related Generators

See Using Relational Databases.

Generators For Data Of Simple Type

CharacterGenerator: Generates random characters.
IncrementGenerator: Generates numbers starting with one and incrementing the number on each subsequent call
StringGenerator: Generates strings based on character set, prefix, suffix and length characteristics. This is the typical component for generating code numbers. Properties: charSet (regular expression for a character class), locale, unique, ordered, prefix, minInitial, suffix, minLength, maxLength, lengthGranularity, lengthDistribution
RegexStringGenerator: Generates strings that match a given regular expression. This is the typical component for generating strings that are composed of different sub patterns. Properties: pattern (regular expression), unique, ordered, locale, minLength, maxLength
MessageGenerator: Composes strings using a MessageFormat
LuhnGenerator: Generates Luhn-valid strings like credit card numbers

Generators For The Current Date And/Or Time

CurrentDateGenerator

Generates date values that represent the current date

CurrentDateTimeGenerator

Generates date values that represent the current date and time

CurrentZonedDateTimeGenerator

Generates zoneddatetime values that represent the current date and time. By default, it uses the system's default time zone. In order to specify a different time zone set the generator's property timeZone as described below in the ZonedDateTimeGenerator.

CurrentMilliTimeGenerator

Generates long values that denote the number of milliseconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00

CurrentNanoTimeGenerator

Generates long values that denote a number of milliseconds since an arbitrary point in time (possible even in the future, so values may be negative)

CurrentTimeGenerator

Generates date values that represent the current time of the day

Generators For Random Date And/Or Time Values

DateGenerator

Generates date values that represent a certain time at a certain day based on a common Distribution

DayGenerator

Generates date values that represent „day“ dates – dates at midnight

DateTimeGenerator

Generates date values with date and time configurable independentlyIts properties are: minDate, maxDate, dateGranularity, dateDistribution, minTime, maxTime, timeGranularity, timeDistribution.

minDate and maxDate are configured in the form yyyy-MM-dd (year-month-day).

dateGranularity is specified in the form y-M-d (years-months-days), eg. 0-0-7 for weekly events, or 0-1-0 for monthly ones.

minTime and maxTime need to be specified as HH:mm:ss (hours:minutes:seconds) with the hours in 24-hour-format.

timeGranularity is specified in the form H:m:s (hours:minutes:seconds), eg. 0-1-0 or 0-0-60 for hourly events.

The generator is configured most easily as a JavaBean, eg. by <bean id="dtGen"> and used eg. in attribute generation with generator="idGen"".

As an example, for a 9-to-5 datetime on odd days of August 2010, use

<bean id="dtGen" class="DateTimeGenerator">
    <property name='minDate' value='2010-08-01'/>
    <property name='maxDate' value='2010-08-31'/>
    <property name='dateGranularity' value='00-00-02'/>
    <property name='dateDistribution' value='random'/>
    <property name='minTime' value='08:00:00'/>
    <property name='maxTime' value='17:00:00'/>
    <property name='timeGranularity' value='00:00:01'/>
    <property name='timeDistribution' value='random'/>
</bean>

ZonedDateTimeGenerator

Generates zoneddatetime values with a fixed timezone and variable date and time configurable independently.

For the following properties, please see the description of the DateTimeGenerator above: minDate, maxDate, dateGranularity, dateDistribution, minTime, maxTime, timeGranularity, timeDistribution

By default, the generator uses the system's default time zone. In order to specify a different time zone set the generator's property timeZone to a zone id that is supported in Java, for example one of these:

Name	Zone offset
America/Vancouver	GMT-8
America/Chicago	GMT-6
America/New_York	GMT-5
America/Santiago	GMT-4
America/Buenos_Aires	GMT-3
America/Sao_Paulo	GMT-3
Europe/Lisbon	GMT
Europe/London	GMT
Europe/Berlin	GMT+1
Europe/Athens	GMT+2
Asia/Tel_Aviv	GMT+2
Africa/Johannesburg	GMT+2
Asia/Istanbul	GMT+3
Europe/Moscow	GMT+3
Asia/Calcutta	GMT+5:30
Asia/Jakarta	GMT+7
Asia/Bangkok	GMT+7
Asia/Hong_Kong	GMT+8
Asia/Shanghai	GMT+8
Asia/Taipei	GMT+8
Asia/Singapore	GMT+8
Asia/Tokyo	GMT+9
Asia/Seoul	GMT+9
Australia/Sydney	GMT+10

File-Related Generators

FileGenerator: generates java.io.File objects representing files in a given directory structure
FileNameGenerator: generates file names representing files in a given directory structure.
It has a 'pathType' property which can be configured to generate absolute, canonical or local file names.
TextFileContentGenerator: provides text file contents as String
BinaryFileContentGenerator: provides binary file contents as byte[]

State Generators

StateGenerator: Generates states based on a state machine
StateTransitionGenerator: Like the StateGenerator, but generating Transition objects

Seed Based Generators

SeedWordGenerator: Generates new words based on rules derived from a dictionary.
SeedSentenceGenerator: Generates sentences based on rules derived from a text file.

Distributions

A Distribution describes stochastic properties for distributing the data that Benerator generates. You can use the predefined distributions or implement and introduce custom implementations. The most important types of distribution are Sequence, WeightFunction and _ CumulativeDistributionFunction_.

A Distribution implements a common concept for generating numbers or taking values from a data source and providing them in a rearranged order or distribution with similar semantics as the number generation feature.

As an example, a 'Skip2' sequence might generate numbers with an increment of 2: 1, 3, 5, 7,… When it is used to redistribute given data item1, item2, item3, item4,... , it would provide the values item1, item3, ...

While most Distribution components implement number generation as well data rearrangement, they are not required to support both concepts.

All Distributions listed below are included in the default imports.

Memory consumption

Distributions that are based on number generation may adopt data redistribution by simply loading all available data into a long list in RAM and then using their number generation feature to determine indices of the data to provide. If the data amount is large, you may get memory problems. In order to provide an easy start, Benerator reduces the default size of these lists to 100,000 elements, prints out an error message if the number is exceeded, but simply continues to work with the reduced amount of data. You can allow Benerator to use a larger cache by adding a benerator.cacheSize to your BENERATOR_OPTS, e.g.

-Dbenerator.cacheSize=2000000

If this makes you run into an OutOfMemoryError, check the Troubleshooting section on how to allocate a larger Java heap in Benerator.

Sequences

Sequences reflect the idea of a mathematical sequence. They primarily focus in number generation, but they can be applied for data redistribution as well. Most sequences have a default instance which can be used by their literal, e.g. distribution="random" uses the random literal for the distribution defined in the class RandomSequence.

RandomSequence

Class	RandomSequence
Description	Creates uniformly distributed random values
Default Instance	random

CumulatedSequence

Class	CumulatedSequence
Description	Creates random values with a bell-shape probability distribution
Default Instance	cumulated

StepSequence

Class	StepSequence
Description	Depending on the settings of property 'delta', it starts with the min or max value of the specified range. With each further invocation, the 'increment' value is added. If addition makes the current value exceed the specified number range, the Sequence becomes unavailable. So the numbers provided are unique. Example: increment = -2, range=1..7: 7, 5, 3, 1
Default Instances	increment: Uses delta = 1 to create incremental values, e.g. 1, 2, 3,...

Property	Property Description	Default Value
delta	The difference between the next value and the previous one	1

RandomWalkSequence

Class	RandomWalkSequence
Description	Starting with an → initial value, a random value between → minStep and → **
maxStep** is added on each subsequent invocation
Default Instance	randomWalk

Property	Property Description	Default Value
minStep	The maximum delta between the next and the previous value	-1
maxStep	The maximum delta between the next and the previous value	1
initial	If no initial value was configured explicitly, number generation starts with the min, max or medium value of the specified range – depending on the settings of minStep and maxStep	null

ShuffleSequence

Class

ShuffleSequence

Description

Can be used to iterate quickly through a large number range with avoiding duplicate values. It starts from an offset of 0 and iterates the number range with a fix increment. After the range is covered, it increases the offset by one and reiterates the range. When the offset reaches the same value as the increment, it is set back to 0 again. For an increment of 3 in a range 1..7, the generated numbers would be 1, 4, 7, 2, 5, 3, 6, 1, 4, ...

Default Instance

shuffle

Property	Property Description	Default Value
increment	See the class description	2

WedgeSequence

Class	WedgeSequence
Description	Starting with first the lowest, then the highest available number, this alternatively provides increasing small numbers and decreasing large numbers until they converge in the middle and the Sequence becomes unavailable. So this generation is unique. For a number range 1..7, the generated numbers would be: 1, 7, 2, 6, 3, 5, 4.
Default Instance	wedge

BitReverseSequence

Class	BitReverseSequence
Description	Creates numbers by continually increasing an internal counter and providing its value in bit-reversed order. This stops when each available number has been generated once, thus providing unique number generation. This comes close to a unique random distribution.
Default Instance	bitreverse

ExpandSequence

Class	ExpandSequence
Description	Distributes numbers or data of unlimited volume in a unique or non-unique manner, by starting with a limited lower range and continuously expanding data region as data is generated. This comes close to a unique random distribution and can be used to iterate over very huge amounts of data.
Default Instance	expand

Property	Property Description	Default Value
cacheSize	The maximum number of elements to keep in RAM at the same time	100
bucketSize	The size of 'buckets' over which to distribute the iterated data. The smaller the number, the more buckets are used and the more erratic the generated data looks.	10
duplicationQuota	The probability by which a data element will be reused in a later call	0

HeadSequence

Class	HeadSequence
Description	When applied to a data source or generator, only the first few elements are provided. The number of elements is defined by the **
size** property.
Default Instance	head

Property	Property Description	Default Value
size	The size of the buffer	1

LiteralSequence

Class	LiteralSequence
Description	Defines a number sequence using a comma-separated list literal.
Default Instance	–

Property	Property Description	Default Value
spec	A comma-separated list with all values in the order in which they shall be provided ,e.g. '2,3,5,7,11'	–

WeightedNumbers

Class	WeightedNumbers
Description	Creates numbers based on a weighted-number literal , e.g. '1^70, 3^30' for generating 70% '1' values and 30% '3' values. This is a convenient and simple approach for controlling parent-child cardinalities in nested data generation.
Default Instance	–

Property	Property Description	Default Value
spec	A weighted-number literal. It lists weighted values in a comma-separated list. Each weighted value is specified by the numeric value followed by a circumflex (^) and the weight value, for example '1^70,3^30'	–

FibonacciSequence

Class	FibonacciSequence
Description	Generates numbers based on the Fibonacci Sequence
Default Instance	fibonacci

PadovanSequence

Class	PadovanSequence
Description	Generates numbers based on the Padovan Sequence
Default Instance	padovan

Weight Functions

Weight functions are another special case of Distributions. They are based on a function which is supposed to allow continuous value generation, but since Benerator needs to perform a numerical integration for deriving random values, a granularity must be applied. This way, the generated value set is quantized. Another drawback of the approach is that fine-grained generation is memory-consuming and slow.

Thus, it is recommended to avoid weight functions if possible and choose a similar Sequence or CumulativeDistributionFunction instead.

GaussianFunction

Implements the well-known Gaussian Function.

Full class name: com.rapiddweller.benerator.distribution.function.GaussianFunction

Parameters: average [, deviation]

Example:

<import class="com.rapiddweller.benerator.distribution.function.*"/>
        ...
<attribute name="price" type="big_decimal" min="0.1" max="99.90" granularity="0.1"
           distribution="new GaussianFunction(50,20)"/>

ExponentialFunction

The Exponential Function.

Full class name: com.rapiddweller.benerator.distribution.function.ExponentialFunction

Parameters: [scale,] frequency

Example:

<import class="com.rapiddweller.benerator.distribution.function.*"/>
        ...
<attribute name="category" type="string" values="A,B,C" distribution="new ExponentialFunction(0.5)"/>

DiscreteFunction

Discrete Function that specifies an explicit weight for each possible value

Full class name: com.rapiddweller.benerator.distribution.function.DiscreteFunction

Parameters: weight1 [, weight2 [, weight3 ...]]

Example:

<import class="com.rapiddweller.benerator.distribution.function.*"/>
        ...
<attribute name="rating" type="int" min="1" max="3" distribution="new DiscreteFunction(1, 2, 1)"/>

CumulativeDistributionFunction

The CumulativeDistributionFunction is another special case of a Distribution, which allows for continuous value generation as opposed to Sequence and WeightFunction.

ExponentialDensityIntegral

Inverse of the integral of the probability density f(x) = a e^{-ax} (x > 0), which resolves to F^{-1}(x) = - log(1 - x) / a.

Converters

Benerator supports two different types of converter interfaces:

com.rapiddweller.common.Converter{: target="_blank" rel="noopener" .external }
java.text.Format{: target="_blank" rel="noopener" .external }

Converter Setup

Instantiation of converters follows the same principles as other objects handled by benerator. They can be instantiated either as beans (see NoiseInducer example below) or inline.

An inline instantiation of the Mask converter below:

<iterate count="5" source="db" consumer="ConsoleExporter">
    <attribute name="column" type="string" converter="Mask"/>
</iterate>

Configuration for inline usage of converters (cp. new Mask{maskChar = '$' }) to set converter properties with curly brackets notation looks like:

<iterate count="5" source="db" consumer="ConsoleExporter">
    <attribute name="column" type="string" converter="new Mask{maskChar='$'}"/>
</iterate>

Default Converters

The following converter classes are imported by default:

ByteArrayToBase64Converter: Converts byte arrays to strings which are base-64-encoded
ByteArray2StringConverter: Converts byte arrays to strings
ToLowerCaseConverter: Converts strings to lowercase
ToUpperCaseConverter: Converts strings to uppercase
LiteralParser: Parses strings as numbers, strings, dates and times
Mask: Replaces each character of a string with an asterisk '*' or another configurable character ( property : maskChar).
MiddleMask: Replaces each character of a string with an asterisk '*' or another configurable character, leaving a configurable number of characters unmasked at the beginning and/or the end of the string.
Append: Appends a configurable suffix.
CutLength: Cuts the length of a string.
MD5Hash, SHA1Hash, SHA256Hash: Convert any data to a hexadecimal hash code
MD5HashBase64, SHA1HashBase64, SHA256HashBase64: Convert any data to a hash code in Base64 format
JavaHash: Convert any data to a hexadecimal hash code. This implementation is faster than the hash converters above
MessageConverter: Converts an object, wrapping it with a message string, using a java.text.MessageFormat
PropertyResourceBundleConverter: Uses a Java PropertyResourceBundle to translate keywords to translations in a given Java Locale
ToStringConverter: Converts arbitrary objects to strings
UniqueStringConverter: Assures uniqueness for all processed Strings by appending unique numbers to recurring instances (attention: limited to a few 100.000 elements)
URLEncodeConverter: Applies a URL encoding to strings
URLDecodeConverter: decodes URL encoded strings
PrintfConverter: formats objects using a pattern in printf format
RegexReplacer: Uses a regular expression to replace parts of the processed strings
String2ByteArrayConverter: Converts Strings to ByteArrays. Might be useful for writing JSON to raw data types (BLOB, BYTEA).
SubstringExtractor: Extracts substrings from strings. It has the properties from and to. If to is not set, it extracts from from until the end. If to or from is negative, it denotes a backwards position count, making e.g. -1 the last character position.
EscapingConverter: Escapes strings in Java style, like A\tB
Number2CharConverter: Converts a number to a character of the corresponding ASCII code
Char2StringConverter: Converts a character to a string of length 1
EscapingConverter: Escapes control codes in a string in C and Java style, e.g. with \r, \n, \t
Number2CharConverter: Converts a number to a character with the corresponding ASCII code, e.g. 65 → A

The package com.rapiddweller.text provides the following converters:

DelocalizingConverter: Converts strings with non-ASCII letters to ASCII strings, e.g. Müller → Mueller, Sœr → Soer
NameNormalizer: Normalizes a string by trimming it, normalizing inner white space and formatting each word to start with an uppercase character and continue with lowercase characters
NormalizeSpaceConverter: Trims a string and normalizes inner white space to one space character
ToHexConverter: Renders characters, strings snd integral numbers in hexadecimal representation

In the package com.rapiddweller.benerator.primitive.number there are two converters that can be used to quantize numerical values:

FloatingPointQuantizer, IntegralQuantizer, NumberQuantizer: Quantize numbers to be a min value plus an integral multiple of a ** granularity**
NoiseInducer: Adds numerical noise to numbers. The noise characteristics can be configured with the properties minNoise, maxNoise, noiseGranularity and noiseDistribution. When setting the boolean property relative to true, noise is relative, where maxCount=1 corresponds to 100% noise-to-signal ratio. If relative=false, the absolute value of the noise is added or subtracted. Example:

NoiseInducer example:

<bean id="inducer" class="com.rapiddweller.benerator.primitive.number.NoiseInducer">
    <property name="minNoise" value="-0.2"/>
    <property name="maxNoise" value="0.2"/>
    <property name="noiseGranularity" value="0.01"/>
    <property name="noiseDistribution" value="cumulated"/>
    <property name="relative" value="true"/>
</bean>

<generate count="5" consumer="ConsoleExporter">
<attribute name="x" type="int" constant="100" converter="inducer"/>
</generate>

produces the result:

entity[x=99]
entity[x=105]
entity[x=92]
entity[x=104]
entity[x=99]

!!! tip Find out more about built-in converters in the rapiddweller rd-lib-common repository{: target="_blank" rel="noopener" .external } and check the available converter classes{: target="_blank" rel="noopener" .external }.

Java Formats

Beware that the java.text.Format classes are not thread-safe!

SimpleDateFormat: Uses a pattern to format dates as strings
DecimalFormat: Uses a pattern to format numbers as strings

Validators

Domain Validators

For the validators from the domains see Domains.

Common validators

CharacterRangeValidator: Validates if a character is in a certain range
NotNullValidator: Requires the validated data to be not null
StringLengthValidator: Limits allowed strings to a minimum and/or maximum length
StringValidator: Validates string by min length, max length and a charactor validator
UniqueValidator: Requires data to be unique (attention: limited to some 100.000 elements)
UnluckyNumberValidator: Checks if a String contains an 'unlucky' number like 13 in western cultures or 4 in east-asian cultures
DayOfWeekValidator: Accepts only Dates of certain (configurable) weekdays
RegexValidator: Validates if a string matches a regular expression
LuhnValidator: Checks if a number string (e.g. credit card number) is Luhn-valid

Tasks

FileJoiner: Joins several files (sources) into a destination file, optionally appending the joint data to an existing destination file, or overwriting it. If deleteSources is set to true, the sources are deleted afterwards.
FileDeleter: Deletes a number of files.

Consumers

A Consumer consumes generated data and usually is used for exporting or persisting the data.

LoggingConsumer

Class Name	LoggingConsumer
Import	default
Class Description	Logs all Consumer invocations to a logger

ConsoleExporter

Class Name	ConsoleExporter
Import	default
Class Description	Prints entities in the console
Constructors	Default constructorConstructor with 'limit' argument (see below)

Property	Property Description	Default Value
limit	The maximum number of entries per type to print out	unlimited
nullString	Text to represent null values	""
datePattern	The pattern to render date values	"yyyy-MM-dd"
timePattern	The pattern to render time values	"HH:mm:ss"
timestampPattern	The pattern to render timestamp values	"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSSSSSSS"
decimalPattern	The pattern to render decimal values	System default
decimalSeparator	The decimal separator to use for decimal values	System default
integralPattern	The pattern to integral number values	System default

JavaInvoker

Class Name	JavaInvoker
Import	`<import platforms="java"/>`
Class Description	Maps entity components to method parameters and invokes a method on a Java object with these parameters.

Property	Property Description	Default Value
target	The Java object on which to invoke the method
methodName	The name of the Java method to invoke

Usage example:

<bean id="service" spec="..."/>
<bean id="invoker" spec="new JavaInvoker(ejb, 'enrolCustomer')"/>

DbUnitEntityExporter

Class Name	DbUnitEntityExporter
Import	`<import platforms="dbunit"/>`
Class Description	Exports entities to a file in DbUnit XML format.

Property	Property Description	Default Value
uri	The URI of the file to create	"data.dbunit.xml"
encoding	The character encoding to use for the file	The system default

XMLEntityExporter

Class Name	XMLEntityExporter
Import	`<import platforms="xml"/>`
Class Description	Exports entities to an XML file

Property	Property Description	Default Value
uri	The URI of the file to create	"export.xml"
encoding	The character encoding to use for the file	The system default

NoConsumer

Class Name	NoConsumer
Import	default
Class Description	In some cases a pseudo `<generate>` statements acts as a mechanism to perform a loop. In such cases a consumer does not make sense but causes Benerator to emit a warning „No consumers defined for `<loop name>`“. In order to avoid this warning, you can use the NoConsumer class, which is an empty implementation of the Consumer interface.

ScriptedEntityExporter

Class Name	ScriptedEntityExporter
Import	`<import platforms="script"/>`
Class Description	Exports entities to a file in custom format, rendered using a script language, e.g. FreeMarker. Three different script expressions may be applied for header (headerScript property), entity (partScript) and footer (footerScript).

Property	Property Description	Default Value
uri	The URI of the file to create
encoding	The character encoding to use for the file	The system default
headerScript	Script to format an eventual header line
partScript	Script to format an exported entity
footerScript	Script to format an eventual footer line
nullString	Text to represent null values	""
datePattern	The pattern to render date values	"yyyy-MM-dd"
dateCapitalization	The capitalization to use when rendering a month name in a date: 'upper', 'lower' or 'mixed'	mixed
timePattern	The pattern to render time values	"HH:mm:ss"
timestampPattern	The pattern to render timestamp values	"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSSSSSSS"
timestampCapitalization	The capitalization to use when rendering a month name in a timestamp: 'upper', 'lower' or 'mixed'	mixed
decimalPattern	The pattern to render decimal values	System default
decimalSeparator	The decimal separator to use for decimal values	System default
integralPattern	The pattern to integral number values	System default

FixedWidthEntityExporter

Class Name	FixedWidthEntityExporter
Import	`<import platforms="fixedwidth"/>`
Class Description	Exports entities to a fixed column width file.

Property	Property Description	Default Value
uri	The URI of the file to create	"export.fcw"
columns	A comma-separated list of column format specifications
encoding	The character encoding to use for the file	System default
lineSeparator	The line separator to use in the generated file	System default
append	If set to true, data is appended to existing files, otherwise existing files are overwritten	false
nullString	Text to represent null values	""
datePattern	The pattern to render date values	"yyyy-MM-dd"
dateCapitalization	The capitalization to use when rendering a month name in a date: 'upper', 'lower' or 'mixed'	mixed
timePattern	The pattern to render time values	"HH:mm:ss"
timestampPattern	The pattern to render timestamp values	"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSSSSSSS"
timestampCapitalization	The capitalization to use when rendering a month name in a timestamp: 'upper', 'lower' or 'mixed'	mixed
decimalPattern	The pattern to render decimal values	System default
decimalSeparator	The decimal separator to use for decimal values	System default
integralPattern	The pattern to format integral number values	System default

The line format is described as a comma-separated list of property names with format spec, e.g. name[20],age[3r] ,points[5.2r0]. The format spec consists of

[] brackets
the (required) column width
an optional alignment flag l, r or c (for left, right, center), left by default
an optional pad character, space by default

So a property configuration of name[20],age[3r],points[5.2r0] would resolve to three columns,

first, a name entry, padded to 20 columns using spaces (default), aligned to the left (default)

second, an age entry, padded to 3 columns using spaces (default), aligned to the right

third, a points column, padded to 5 columns using zeros, having two fraction digits, aligned to the right

and would be rendered like this:

Alice Hamilton 2310.05
Bob Durand 4601.23
Helmut Schmidt 10226.14

XLSEntityExporter

Class Name	XLSEntityExporter
Import	`<import platforms="xls"/>`
Class Description	Exports entities to Excel XLS files. For using this exporter you need to add the Apache POI library to the Benerator's lib directory.

Property	Property Description	Default Value
uri	The URI of the file to create	"export.xls"
nullString	Text to represent null values	""

CSVEntityExporter

Class Name	CSVEntityExporter
Import	`<import platforms="csv"/>`
Class Description	Exports entities to a CSV file

Property	Property Description	Default Value
uri	The URI of the file to create	"export.csv"
columns	A comma-separated list of column names
headless	Flag to leave out column headers	false
separator	The character to use as column separator	","
encoding	The character encoding to use for the file	System default
lineSeparator	The line separator to use in the generated file	System default
endWithNewLine	Specifies if the last row in the file should end with a line break	false
append	If set to true, data is appended to existing files, otherwise existing files are overwritten	false
nullString	Text to represent null values	Empty string
quoteEmpty	When set to 'true', empty strings are formatted with double quotes ("",""), otherwise an empty field (,)	false
datePattern	The pattern to render date values	"yyyy-MM-dd"
dateCapitalization	The capitalization to use when rendering a month name in a date: 'upper', 'lower' or 'mixed'	mixed
timePattern	The pattern to render time values	"HH:mm:ss"
timestampPattern	The pattern to render timestamp values	"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSSSSSSS"
timestampCapitalization	The capitalization to use when rendering a month name in a timestamp: 'upper', 'lower' or 'mixed'	mixed
decimalPattern	The pattern to render decimal values	System default
decimalSeparator	The decimal separator to use for decimal values	System default
integralPattern	The pattern to integral number values	System default

SQLEntityExporter

Class Name	SQLEntityExporter
Import	`<import platforms="db"/>`
Class Description	Exports entities as 'INSERT' commands to a SQL file

Property	Property Description	Default Value
uri	The URI of the file to create	"export.sql"
encoding	The character encoding to use for the file	System default
lineSeparator	The line separator to use in the generated file	System default
append	If set to true, data is appended to existing files, otherwise existing files are overwritten	false
dialect	The SQL dialect to use in the generated file. Available values: db2, derby, firebird, hsql, h2, oracle, postgres, sql_server
datePattern	The pattern to render date values	"yyyy-MM-dd"
timePattern	The pattern to render time values	"HH:mm:ss"
timestampPattern	The pattern to render timestamp values	"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSSSSSSS"
decimalPattern	The pattern to render decimal values	System default
decimalSeparator	The decimal separator to use for decimal values	System default
integralPattern	The pattern to integral number values	System default

EntitySources (Importers)

Benerator provides the following implementations of the EntitySource interface:

DbUnitEntitySource

Class Name	DbUnitEntitySource
Import	`<import platforms="dbunit"/>`
Class Description	Imports entities from a DbUnit XML file

Property	Property Description	Default Value
uri	The URI of the file to read	"export.sql"

CSVEntitySource

Class Name	CSVEntitySource
Import	`<import platforms="csv"/>`
Class Description	Imports entities from a CSV file

Property	Property Description	Default Value
uri	The URI of the file to read	"export.sql"
encoding	The character encoding used in the file	System default
separator	The line separator used in the file	","
columns	When set, the input file is expected to have no header row

FixedColumnWidthEntitySource

Class Name	CSVEntitySource
Import	`<import platforms="fixedwidth"/>`
Class Description	Imports entities from a fixed column width file

Property	Property Description	Default Value
uri	The URI of the file to read	"export.sql"
encoding	The character encoding of the file	System default
columns	The columns specification (See the FixedWidthEntityExporter for documentation)

XLSEntitySource

Class Name	XLSEntitySource
Import	`<import platforms="xls"/>`
Class Description	Imports entities from an Excel(TM) document

Property	Property Description	Default Value
uri	The URI of the file to read

Benerator Utility Classes

RandomUtil

Class Name	RandomUtil
Import	`<import class="com.rapiddweller.benerator.util.RandomUtil"/>`
Class Description	Provides basic random functions

Method	Method Description
randomLong(min, max)	Returns a random long between min (inclusively) and max (inclusively)
randomInt(min, max)	Returns a random int between min (inclusively) and max (inclusively)
randomElement(value1, value2, ...)	Returns a random element of the ones listed as parameters
randomElement(List values)	Returns a random element from the 'values' list
randomIndex(List values)	Returns a random index for the 'values' list
randomDigit(min)	Returns a random numerical character with a value of at least min. Example: randomDigit(1) produces characters between '1' and '9'.
randomProbability()	Returns a float between 0 and 1
randomDate(min, max)	Returns a random date between min (inclusively) and max (inclusively)
randomFromWeightLiteral(literal)	Evaluates the weight literal and returns one of the specified values with the specified probability. Example literal: 'A'^3,'B'^1 will produce 75% of 'A' values and 25% of 'B' values.

rapiddweller Commons Library

The library rd-lib-common derived from Databene Commons from Volker Bergmann is a general-purpose utility collection which also provides some features useful for data generation and manipulation. Its converters and validators are liste above, but there are some general utility classes too. They can be invoked directly using rapiddwellerScript or other supported script languages.

TimeUtil

Class Name	TimeUtil
Import	`<import class="com.rapiddweller.common.TimeUtil"/>`
Class Description	Provides time and date related utility methods

Method	Method Description
currentYear()	returns the current year as integer value
today()	returns the current day as date object
yesterday()	returns the previous date as date object
tomorrow()	returns the next day as date object
date(year, month, day)	creates a date object for the specified day in the user's default time zone. 'month' is a zero-based integer, January = 0, February = 1, ...
gmtDate(year, month, day)	creates a date object for the specified day in the time zone GMT. 'month' is a zero-based integer, January = 0, February = 1, ...
date(year, month, day, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds)	creates a date object for the specified day and time in the user's default time zone. 'month' is a zero-based integer, January = 0, February = 1, ...
date(millis)	creates a date object in the user's default time zone. The time is specified as milliseconds since 1970-01-01
year(date)	returns the year of the specified date as integer
month(date)	returns the month of the specified date as integer
dayOfMonth(date)	returns the day of month of the specified date as integer
firstDayOfMonth(date)	returns the first day of the specified date's month
lastDayOfMonth(date)	returns the last day of the specified date's month
millis(year, month, day, hour, minute, second)	Calculates the number of milliseconds since 1970-01-01. 'month' is a zero-based integer, January = 0, February = 1, ...
time(hour, minute, second)	Creates a time object for the specified time
time(hour, minute, second, millisecond)	Creates a time object for the specified time
timestamp(year, month, day, hour, minute, second, nanosecond)	Creates a timestamp value for the specified time. 'month' is a zero-based integer, January = 0, February = 1, ...
currentTime()	Creates a time object representing the current time
midnightOf(date)	Rounds down a date value that may include a time to a value that represents midnight (time = 0)
addDays(date, noOfDays)	Calculates a date a given number of days past a given date
addMonths(date, noOfMonths)	Calculates a date a given number of months past a given date
addYears(date, noOfYears)	Calculates a date a given number of years past a given date

Period

Class Name	Period
Import	`<import class="com.rapiddweller.common.Period"/>`
Class Description	Provides constants for some time periods

Invocation	Description
Period.SECOND.millis	The number of milliseconds in a second
Period.MINUTE.millis	The number of milliseconds in a minute
Period.HOUR.millis	The number of milliseconds in an hour
Period.DAY.millis	The number of milliseconds in a day
Period.WEEK.millis	The number of milliseconds in a week

IOUtil

Class Name	IOUtil
Import	`<import class="com.rapiddweller.common.IOUtil"/>`
Class Description	Provides I/O related utility methods

Method	Method Description
isURIAvailable(uri)	Tells if the file specified by the given URI exists
getContentOfURI(uri)	Provides the content of the specified file as string
getBinaryContentOfUri(uri)	Provides the content of the specified file as byte array
getParentUri(uri)	Determines the parent URI (folder) of the specified URI
getProtocol(uri)	Determines the protocol specified in the URI
download(sourceUrl, targetFile)	Downloads the content of a remote URI to the local file system
copyFile(sourceUri, targetUri)	Copies a file on the local file system

CharUtil

Class Name	CharUtil
Import	`<import class="com.rapiddweller.common.CharUtil"/>`
Class Description	Provides character related utility methods

Method	Method Description
ordinal(character)	Returns a character's ordinal as integer
character(ordinal)	Returns the character that corresponds to the given ordinal

Files

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Component Reference

Generators

Domain Generators

Generators For Common Id Types

Database-Related Generators

Generators For Data Of Simple Type

Generators For The Current Date And/Or Time

CurrentDateGenerator

CurrentDateTimeGenerator

CurrentZonedDateTimeGenerator

CurrentMilliTimeGenerator

CurrentNanoTimeGenerator

CurrentTimeGenerator

Generators For Random Date And/Or Time Values

DateGenerator

DayGenerator

DateTimeGenerator

ZonedDateTimeGenerator

File-Related Generators

State Generators

Seed Based Generators

Distributions

Memory consumption

Sequences

RandomSequence

CumulatedSequence

StepSequence

RandomWalkSequence

ShuffleSequence

WedgeSequence

BitReverseSequence

ExpandSequence

HeadSequence

LiteralSequence

WeightedNumbers

FibonacciSequence

PadovanSequence

Weight Functions

GaussianFunction

ExponentialFunction

DiscreteFunction

CumulativeDistributionFunction

ExponentialDensityIntegral

Converters

Converter Setup

Default Converters

Java Formats

Validators

Domain Validators

Common validators

Tasks

Consumers

LoggingConsumer

ConsoleExporter

JavaInvoker

DbUnitEntityExporter

XMLEntityExporter

NoConsumer

ScriptedEntityExporter

FixedWidthEntityExporter

XLSEntityExporter

CSVEntityExporter

SQLEntityExporter

EntitySources (Importers)

DbUnitEntitySource

CSVEntitySource

FixedColumnWidthEntitySource

XLSEntitySource

Benerator Utility Classes

RandomUtil

rapiddweller Commons Library

TimeUtil

Period

IOUtil