Simplifying Java with Jakarta Commons Lang

As enterprise Java developers, we are routinely required to implement functionality like parsing XML, working with HTTP, validating input, and processing dates. The Jakarta Commons project is an attempt to create components that can take care of all such commonly used tasks, freeing up your time to focus only on core business solutions. In this article we will provide a quick introduction to the Jakarta Commons project and then demonstrate how the Lang component within Jakarta Commons can be used to handle and simplify everyday Java tasks such as string manipulation, working with dates and calendars, comparing data objects, and sorting objects. For all examples, we will use the latest version of Lang, version 2.1.