[BEAM-1225] Add a ToString transform in Java SDK

• Type: Improvement
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: P3
• Resolution: Fixed
• Fix Version/s: 0.5.0
• Component/s: sdk-java-core
• Labels: Done
• Assignee: Vikas Kedigehalli
• Reporter: Vikas Kedigehalli
• Created: 28/Dec/16 19:25
• Updated: 06/Oct/20 21:54
• Resolved: 18/Jan/17 20:28

Description

It is a common pattern in BEAM pipelines to convert a PCollection<T> to PCollection<String>. It involves the pipeline author having to write a SimpleFunction or DoFn that just calls the 'toString' method on each element and then use it through MapElements or a ParDo. Having a ToString transform would help avoid writing this boilerplate code.

Issue Links

• links to: GitHub Pull Request #1704
• links to: GitHub Pull Request #1721