Groovy adds the inspect method to the Object. This means it is available on all objects in our application. It is like the toString method, but adds some extra formatting. The most notable is the addition of single quotes to String values.

In the following example we see the output of the inspect method on different objects:

def username = "mrhaki"
// String value is enclosed in
// single quotes.
assert username.inspect() == "'mrhaki'"


def user = "${username}"
// user is GStringImpl not a String object,
// so no single quotes are added by
// inspect() to show value is a String object.
assert user.inspect() == "mrhaki"


def multiline = '''Hello mrhaki,
how you're doing?'''
// Special characters like tab,
// line feed and single quotes
// are escaped.
assert multiline.inspect() == /'Hello mrhaki,\nhow you\'re doing?'/


def list = [42, '1', ['Groovy rocks!']]
// String values in the list are
// enclosed in single quotes.
assert list.inspect() == "[42, '1', ['Groovy rocks!']]"


def range = 21..<24
// Ranges are shown
// with .. or ..<.
assert range.inspect() == '21..<24'


def m = [a: 1, b: '1']
// Map keys and values are shown
// as their base type. Mostly
// keys are String values, so with
// inspect() they are enclosed in quotes.
assert m.inspect() == "['a':1, 'b':'1']"


import org.w3c.dom.Document
import org.w3c.dom.Element
import groovy.xml.DOMBuilder

def xmlString = 'mrhaki'
Document doc = DOMBuilder.newInstance().parseText(xmlString)
Element root = doc.documentElement.firstChild
// XML Element objects are shown as
// textual XML.
assert root.inspect().trim() == 'mrhaki'

Written with Groovy 2.4.4.

Original article