Interesting problems with the 1.2.2 Debugger and String.substring(int)

Question

Guys/Gals,
Here's an interesting problem to ponder...
I define the following values in my class:
private String descriptorClassName = null;
private String userObjectClassName = null;
private String name = null;
I run the following piece of code as part of the constructor:
descriptorClassName = this.getClass().getName();
userObjectClassName = descriptorClassName.substring(0, descriptorClassName.indexOf("Descriptor"));
name = userObjectClassName.substring(userObjectClassName.lastIndexOf(".")+1);
The first line assigns the value of "com.foo.user.UserDataDescriptor" to descriptorClassName.
The second line assigns the value of "com.foo.user.UserData" to userObjectClassName.
The third line assigns the value of "UserData" to name.
As I step through the code, I see the first two values being set, and yet the third value for name is reported by the debugger as:
"name = null".
I added a call to log4j, which reports that that value of name has been correctly set!
This seems to be a result of the String.substing(int) call, as the call to Sring(substring(int, int) is fine.
Has anyone come accross this one before?
Does anyone have any workarounds other than:
name = userObjectClassName.substring(userObjectClassName.lastIndexOf(".")+1, userObjectClassName.length());
Cheers all.
Regards,
Chris.

Answer 1

I've been trying to reproduce this problem and it always works perfectly. The debugger tells me that name = "UserData". I'm using JDev 3.2.2 and my project is using JDK1.2.2_JDeveloper. Here's the exact source code I'm trying.
package com.foo.user;
public class UserDataDescriptor {
private String descriptorClassName = null;
private String userObjectClassName = null;
private String name = null;
public UserDataDescriptor() {
descriptorClassName = this.getClass().getName();
userObjectClassName = descriptorClassName.substring(0, descriptorClassName.indexOf("Descriptor"));
name = userObjectClassName.substring(userObjectClassName.lastIndexOf(".")+1);
System.out.println("end of constructor");
public static void main(String[] args) {
UserDataDescriptor userDataDescriptor = new UserDataDescriptor();
null