Spring expression language (SpEL) supports many functionality, and you can test those expression features with this special “ExpressionParser” interface.

Here’s two code snippets, show the basic usage of using Spring EL.

SpEL to evaluate the literal string expression.

ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();

Expression exp = parser.parseExpression("'put spel expression here'");

String msg = exp.getValue(String.class);

SpEL to evaluate the bean property – “item.name”.

Item item = new Item("mkyong", 100);

StandardEvaluationContext itemContext = new StandardEvaluationContext(item);

//display the value of item.name property

Expression exp = parser.parseExpression("name");

String msg = exp.getValue(itemContext, String.class);

Few examples to test SpEL. The codes and comments should be self-exploratory.

import org.springframework.expression.Expression;

import org.springframework.expression.ExpressionParser;

import org.springframework.expression.spel.standard.SpelExpressionParser;

import org.springframework.expression.spel.support.StandardEvaluationContext;

public class App {

	public static void main(String[] args) {

		ExpressionParser parser = new SpelExpressionParser();

		//literal expressions

		Expression exp = parser.parseExpression("'Hello World'");

		String msg1 = exp.getValue(String.class);

		System.out.println(msg1);

		//method invocation

		Expression exp2 = parser.parseExpression("'Hello World'.length()");

		int msg2 = (Integer) exp2.getValue();

		System.out.println(msg2);

		//Mathematical operators

		Expression exp3 = parser.parseExpression("100 * 2");

		int msg3 = (Integer) exp3.getValue();

		System.out.println(msg3);

		//create an item object

		Item item = new Item("mkyong", 100);

		//test EL with item object

		StandardEvaluationContext itemContext = new StandardEvaluationContext(item);

		//display the value of item.name property

		Expression exp4 = parser.parseExpression("name");

		String msg4 = exp4.getValue(itemContext, String.class);

		System.out.println(msg4);

		//test if item.name == 'mkyong'

		Expression exp5 = parser.parseExpression("name == 'mkyong'");

		boolean msg5 = exp5.getValue(itemContext, Boolean.class);

		System.out.println(msg5);

	}

}

public class Item {

	private String name;

	private int qty;

	public Item(String name, int qty) {

		super();

		this.name = name;

		this.qty = qty;

	}

	//...

}

Output

Hello World

11

200

mkyong

true