Annotations

Annotations instruct the manager on how to handle properties when loading and exporting classes to and from strings.

@Record

Used on classes. Marks that the class contains @Field annotations on its getter methods and can be imported and exported to and from string representation using the FixedFormatManager.

Attribute	Type	Required	Default	Description
`length`	`int`	no	`-1`	Minimum length the string representation should have. If the string is shorter it is padded with `paddingChar`.
`paddingChar`	`char`	no	`' '`	The character to use when padding is needed.

@Field

Used on getter methods. Contains basic mapping instructions. Required for getter/setter pairs that should be mapped to and from string representation.

Attribute	Type	Required	Default	Description
`offset`	`int`	yes	—	The 1-based offset in the string where the data for this field starts.
`length`	`int`	yes	—	The length for this field in string representation.
`align`	`Align`	no	`Align.LEFT`	How to align the field value when represented as a string.
`paddingChar`	`char`	no	`' '`	The character to pad with when the length is longer than the field value.
`formatter`	`Class<FixedFormatter>`	no	`ByTypeFormatter.class`	The formatter to use when reading and writing the field.

Alignment values:

Value	Padding side	Trim side	Typical use
`Align.LEFT` (default)	Right	Right	Text fields — value starts at the left, spaces fill the right
`Align.RIGHT`	Left	Left	Numeric fields — value ends at the right, padding fills the left

Example: a 5-character field with value "Hi" is stored as "Hi " with LEFT and " Hi" with RIGHT.

@Fields

Used on getter methods when a single field maps to more than one position in a string.

Attribute	Type	Required	Default	Description
`value`	`Field[]`	yes	—	Array of `@Field` annotations. When reading, only the first `@Field` in the array is used.

@FixedFormatBoolean

Optional annotation on getter methods when the field type is Boolean. Configures the string representation of true and false.

Attribute	Type	Required	Default	Description
`trueValue`	`String`	no	`"T"`	String representation when the field equals `Boolean.TRUE`.
`falseValue`	`String`	no	`"F"`	String representation when the field equals `Boolean.FALSE`.

Example: to use "Y" / "N" instead of the defaults:

@Field(offset = 1, length = 1)
@FixedFormatBoolean(trueValue = "Y", falseValue = "N")
public Boolean getActive() { return active; }

String "Y" parses to true; manager.export(...) writes "N" when the value is false.

@FixedFormatNumber

Configures how numeric fields are signed in their string representation.

Attribute	Type	Required	Default	Description
`sign`	`Sign`	no	`Sign.NOSIGN`	Whether and how to sign the number.
`positiveSign`	`char`	no	`'+'`	Character representing a positive sign.
`negativeSign`	`char`	no	`'-'`	Character representing a negative sign.

Sign enum values:

Value	Behaviour	Example (value −123, length 5)
`Sign.NOSIGN` (default)	No sign character; alignment handles padding	`" 123"` (negative values stored as positive)
`Sign.PREPEND`	Sign character placed before the digits	`"-0123"`
`Sign.APPEND`	Sign character placed after the digits	`"0123-"`

Example:

@Field(offset = 1, length = 5, align = Align.RIGHT, paddingChar = '0')
@FixedFormatNumber(sign = Sign.PREPEND)
public Integer getBalance() { return balance; }

Value −123 is stored as "-0123"; value 123 as "+0123" (using the default positiveSign).

@FixedFormatDecimal

Configures how decimal numbers are handled.

Attribute	Type	Required	Default	Description
`decimals`	`int`	no	`2`	Number of decimal places the field contains.
`useDecimalDelimiter`	`boolean`	no	`false`	Whether the field includes a decimal delimiter in its string representation.
`decimalDelimiter`	`char`	no	`'.'`	The decimal delimiter character to use when `useDecimalDelimiter` is `true`.
`roundingMode`	`int`	no	`BigDecimal.ROUND_HALF_UP`	Rounding mode used when the value has more decimal places than `decimals` allows.

When useDecimalDelimiter is false (the default), the decimal point is implicit: the last decimals digits are treated as the fractional part. This is common in legacy and mainframe formats where every character counts.

Example:

@Field(offset = 1, length = 6, align = Align.RIGHT, paddingChar = '0')
@FixedFormatDecimal(decimals = 2, useDecimalDelimiter = false)
public BigDecimal getAmount() { return amount; }

String stored	Parsed value
`"001250"`	`12.50`
`"000099"`	`0.99`

With useDecimalDelimiter = true and length 7: "012.50" parses to 12.50.

@FixedFormatPattern

Configures pattern-based formatting for date fields.

Attribute	Type	Required	Default	Description
`value`	`String`	yes	`"yyyyMMdd"`	The pattern string, e.g. `"yyyyMMdd"` or `"yyyy-MM-dd"`.

Supported field types and their underlying formatter:

Field type	Formatter class	Pattern syntax
`java.util.Date`	`DateFormatter`	`SimpleDateFormat` patterns
`java.time.LocalDate`	`LocalDateFormatter`	`DateTimeFormatter` patterns

Both types use the same pattern syntax (e.g. yyyyMMdd, yyyy-MM-dd, ddMMyyyy).

Example with LocalDate:

@Field(offset = 1, length = 8)
@FixedFormatPattern("yyyyMMdd")
public LocalDate getEventDate() { return eventDate; }

String "20260405" parses to LocalDate.of(2026, 4, 5); exporting writes "20260405" back.

Example with Date:

@Field(offset = 1, length = 8)
@FixedFormatPattern("yyyyMMdd")
public Date getHireDate() { return hireDate; }