[java] How do I get java logging output to appear on a single line?

Like Obediah Stane said, it's necessary to create your own format method. But I would change a few things:

  • Create a subclass directly derived from Formatter, not from SimpleFormatter. The SimpleFormatter has nothing to add anymore.

  • Be careful with creating a new Date object! You should make sure to represent the date of the LogRecord. When creating a new Date with the default constructor, it will represent the date and time the Formatter processes the LogRecord, not the date that the LogRecord was created.

The following class can be used as formatter in a Handler, which in turn can be added to the Logger. Note that it ignores all class and method information available in the LogRecord.

import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.io.StringWriter;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.logging.Formatter;
import java.util.logging.LogRecord;

public final class LogFormatter extends Formatter {

    private static final String LINE_SEPARATOR = System.getProperty("line.separator");

    @Override
    public String format(LogRecord record) {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

        sb.append(new Date(record.getMillis()))
            .append(" ")
            .append(record.getLevel().getLocalizedName())
            .append(": ")
            .append(formatMessage(record))
            .append(LINE_SEPARATOR);

        if (record.getThrown() != null) {
            try {
                StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
                PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(sw);
                record.getThrown().printStackTrace(pw);
                pw.close();
                sb.append(sw.toString());
            } catch (Exception ex) {
                // ignore
            }
        }

        return sb.toString();
    }
}