<p>First, let us start with a couple of deprecations. As you can see in the release notes, we chose
to deprecate the <ahref="http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/ObjectUtils.html#appendIdentityToString(java.lang.StringBuffer,%20java.lang.Object)"><code>ObjectUtils.appendIdentityToString(StringBuffer, Object)</code></a> method as its
null handling did not match its design (see <ahref="http://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/LANG-360">LANG-360</a>
for more details. Instead users should use <code>ObjectUtils.identityToString(StringBuffer, Object)</code>.</p>
<p>We also deprecated <ahref="http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/time/DateUtils.html#add(java.util.Date,%20int,%20int)"><code>DateUtils.add(java.util.Date, int, int)</code></a>. It should have been <code>private</code>
<p>Before we move on, a quick note on the build: we built 2.4 using Maven 2 and Java 1.4. We also tested that the Ant build passed the tests
successfully under Java 1.3, and that the classes compiled under Java 1.2. As it's been so long, we stopped building a Java 1.1-compatible jar. <strong>Most importantly</strong>, it <em>should</em> be a drop in replacement for Lang 2.3, but we recommend testing first, of course. Now... moving on.
<p>Firstly, we added an <ahref="http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/math/IEEE754rUtils.html"><code>IEEE754rUtils</code></a>
<p>Second and third on our newcomers list are the <ahref="http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/text/ExtendedMessageFormat.html"><code>ExtendedMessageFormat</code></a> class and its peer
<p><b>CharSet <ahref="http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/CharSet.html#getInstance(java.lang.String[])">getInstance(String[])</a></b> adds an additional builder method by which you can build a CharSet from multiple sets of characters at the same time. If you weren't aware of the CharSet class, it holds a set of characters created by a simple pattern language allowing constructs such as <code>"a-z"</code> and <code>"^a"</code> (everything but 'a'). It's most used by the CharSetUtils class, and came out of CharSetUtils.translate, a simple variant of the UNIX tr command.</p>
<p><b>ClassUtils <ahref="http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/ClassUtils.html">canonical name</a> methods</b> are akin to the non '<code>Canonical</code>' methods, except they work with the more human readable <code>int[]</code> type names rather than the JVM versions of <code>[I</code>. This makes them useful for parsing input from developer's configuration files. </p>
<p><b>ClassUtils <ahref="http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/ClassUtils.html#toClass(java.lang.Object[])">toClass(String[])</a></b> is very easy to explain - it calls <code>toClass</code> on each <code>Object</code> in the array and returns an array of <code>Class</code> objects.</p>
<p><b>ClassUtils <ahref="http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/ClassUtils.html#wrappersToPrimitives(java.lang.Class[])">wrapper->primitive</a> conversions</b> are the reflection of the pre-existing <code>primitiveToWrapper</code> methods. Again easy to explain, they turn an array of <code>Integer</code> into an array of <code>int[]</code>.</p>
<p><b>ObjectUtils <ahref="http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/ObjectUtils.html#identityToString(java.lang.StringBuffer,%20java.lang.Object)">identityToString(StringBuffer, Object)</a></b> is the StringBuffer variant of the pre-existing <code>identityToString</code> method. In case you've not met that before, it produces the toString that would have been produced by an Object if it hadn't been overridden.</p>
<p><b>StringEscapeUtils <ahref="http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/StringEscapeUtils.html#escapeCsv(java.lang.String)">CSV methods</a></b> are a new addition to our range of simple parser/printers. These, quite as expected, parse and unparse CSV text as per <ahref="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4180">RFC-4180</a>.</p>
<p><b>WordUtils <ahref="http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/WordUtils.html#abbreviate(java.lang.String,%20int,%20int,%20java.lang.String)">abbreviate</a></b> finds the first space after the lower limit and abbreviates the text.</p>
<p><b>math.<ahref="http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/math/IntRange.html#toArray()">IntRange</a>/<ahref="http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/math/LongRange.html#toArray()">LongRange.toArray</a></b> turn the range into an array of primitive <code>int</code>/<code>long</code>s contained in the range.</p>
<p><b>text.StrMatch.<ahref="http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/text/StrMatcher.html#isMatch(char[],%20int)">isMatch(char[], int)</a></b> is a helper method for checking whether there was a match with the StrMatcher objects.</p>
<p><b>time.DateFormatUtils <ahref="http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/time/DateFormatUtils.html">format(Calendar, ...)</a></b> provide Calendar variants for the pre-existing format methods. If these are new to you, they are helper methods to formatting a date.</p>
<p><b>time.DateUtils <ahref="http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/time/DateUtils.html">getFragment*</a> methods</b> are used to splice the time element out of Date. If you have <code>2008/12/13 14:57</code>, then these could, for example, pull out the 13.</p>
<p><b>time.DateUtils <ahref="http://commons.apache.org/lang/api-release/org/apache/commons/lang/time/DateUtils.html">setXxx methods</a></b> round off our walk through the methods - the setXxx variant of the existing addXxx helper methods.</p>
<p>Hopefully they are in many cases self-describing. Rather than spend a lot of time describing them, we'll let you read the Javadoc of the ones that interest you.</p>
<p>Hopefully that was of interest. Don't forget to download <ahref="download_lang.cgi">Lang 2.4</a>, or, for the Maven repository users, upgrade your <version> tag to 2.4. Please feel free to raise any questions you might have on the <ahref="mail-lists.html">mailing lists</a>, and report bugs or enhancements in the <ahref="issue-tracking.html">issue tracker</a>.</p>
