Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!usenet.pasdenom.info!gegeweb.42!gegeweb.eu!nntpfeed.proxad.net!proxad.net!feeder1-1.proxad.net!198.186.194.250.MISMATCH!news-out.readnews.com!news-xxxfer.readnews.com!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail
From: Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject: Re: Substitute value in HashMap at runtime
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:53:48 -0700 (PDT)
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Lines: 45
Message-ID: <16756426.262.1318510428301.JavaMail.geo-discussion-forums@prgv7>
References: <70a582b4-956b-4145-9cb8-ba8fbaf751f5@b10g2000vbc.googlegroups.com>
Reply-To: comp.lang.java.programmer@googlegroups.com
NNTP-Posting-Host: 173.164.137.214
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
X-Trace: posting.google.com 1318510547 19415 127.0.0.1 (13 Oct 2011 12:55:47 GMT)
X-Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com
NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:55:47 +0000 (UTC)
In-Reply-To: <70a582b4-956b-4145-9cb8-ba8fbaf751f5@b10g2000vbc.googlegroups.com>
Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com
Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=173.164.137.214; posting-account=CP-lKQoAAAAGtB5diOuGlDQk0jIwmH0T
User-Agent: G2/1.0
X-Google-Web-Client: true
Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.java.programmer:8759

mike wrote:
> If I create a HashMap with something like:
> 
> static Map<String,String> map = new
> HashMap<String,String>("variable",MyPreferences.getVariableValue());
> 
> If I do it like this I guess that MyPreferences.getVariableValue()
> will not be substituted but be the "plain" string.

Nope.  If you do it like that your code will fail to compile (assuming you're referring to 'java.util.HashMap').
<http://download.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/HashMap.html>

Put together a Simple Self-Contained Compilable Example (SSCCE) per 
http://sscce.org/

Seriously.  Do it.

Even if you use a correct constructor, if 'MyPreferences.getVariableValue()' is not of type 'String' you have a problem:

 public class Foo
 {
   static Map<String,String> map = new HashMap<>();
   static
   {
     map.put( "variable", MyPreferences.getVariableValue() );
   }
 }

The type of the entry must match the type of the target.

BTW, I assume that 'getVariableValue()' is a static member of 'MyPreferences', given that you named the latter as a type and not a variable.

> How can I make my MyPreferences.getVariableValue() be evaluated at
> runtime? Any example?

Use the expression 'MyPreferences.getVariableValue()'.

Let's see that SSCCE in your next post, otherwise there's not much point in continuing, is there?  We need full data to understand what you aim to accomplish, and you need full data for any answer to make any sense.

SSCCE.

http://sscce.org/

-- 
Lew