When is it desired to not implement toString() in Java?

Question

A lead developer on my project has taken to referring to the project's toString() implementations as "pure cruft" and is looking to remove them from the code base.

I've said that doing so would mean that any clients wishing to display the objects would have to write their own code to convert the object to string, but that was answered with "yes they would".

Now specifically, the objects in this system are graphic elements like rectangles, circles, etc and the current representation is to display x, y, scale, bounds, etc...

So, where does the crowd lie?

When should you and when shouldn't you implement toString?

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1161228/when-is-it-desired-to-not-implement-tostring-in-java

Answer 1

What harm do they do? Why remove them if you have them? I find toString() extremely useful when emitting debugging statements.

Personally, I would always err on the side of having a workable toString() method. So little work to write.