Custom providers¶

Since version 1.2.0 of Datafaker it's possible create your own provider of data.

A full example can be found in the source code.

Custom hardcoded provider¶

To create a custom provider of data, you'll need to do the following steps:

Create custom provider of data
Create your own custom faker which extends Faker and register custom provider

In code, this would look like the following:

Hardcoded provider¶

Create a custom provider of data:

Java

public static class Insect extends AbstractProvider<BaseProviders> {
    private static final String[] INSECT_NAMES = new String[]{"Ant", "Beetle", "Butterfly", "Wasp"};

    public Insect(BaseProviders faker) {
        super(faker);
    }

    public String nextInsectName() {
        return INSECT_NAMES[faker.random().nextInt(INSECT_NAMES.length)];
    }
}

Register provider¶

Create your own custom faker, which extends Faker, and register the custom provider:

Java

public static class MyCustomFaker extends Faker {
    public Insect insect() {
        return getProvider(Insect.class, Insect::new, this);
    }
}

Usage¶

To use the custom faker, you can do the following:

Java

MyCustomFaker myFaker = new MyCustomFaker();
System.out.println(myFaker.insect().nextInsectName());

This will print something like the following:

Wasp

Custom provider using Yaml file¶

In case you have a large set of data to load, it might be better to use a Yaml file.

To create a custom provider of data fom a file, you'll need to do the following steps:

Create a custom provider of data
Create your own custom faker which extends Faker and register custom provider

Yaml provider¶

First, create the custom provider which loads the data from a file:

Java

public static class InsectFromFile extends AbstractProvider<BaseProviders> {
    private static final String KEY = "insectsfromfile";

    public InsectFromFile(BaseProviders faker) {
        super(faker);
        faker.addPath(Locale.ENGLISH, Paths.get("src/test/ants.yml"));
        faker.addPath(Locale.ENGLISH, Paths.get("src/test/bees.yml"));
    }

    public String ant() {
        return resolve(KEY + ".ants", null, faker);
    }

    public String bee() {
        return resolve(KEY + ".bees", null, faker);
    }
}

The ants.yml would look like the following:

en:
  faker:
    insectsfromfile:
      ants: ['Driver ant', 'Fire ant', 'Harvester ant', 'Honey ant', 'Leafcutter ant', 'Sahara desert ant']

And if you want to use multiple YAML files, the bees.yml would look like this:

en:
  faker:
    insectsfromfile:
      bees: ['Bumblebee', 'Euglossine bee', 'Honeybee', 'Carpenter bee', 'Leaf-cutter bee', 'Mining bee']

Register provider¶

Registering the provider would happen like this:

Java

public static class MyCustomFaker extends Faker {
    public InsectFromFile insectFromFile() {
        return getProvider(InsectFromFile.class, InsectFromFile::new, this);
    }
}

Usage¶

To use the custom faker, you can do the following:

Java

MyCustomFaker myFaker = new MyCustomFaker();
System.out.println(myFaker.insectFromFile().ant());

This will print something like the following:

Honey ant