A better way of code generator in Java?

Another solution would be to stick to the current technology but provide a small layer with the builder pattern. To implement the builder you need a small one time effort, but get much better readable code.

I implemented the first part of your code. With the proper builder you could write:

graph = new GraphBuilder()
    .createNode(3).setLabel("3").setDescription("null").add()
    .createNode(2).setLabel("2").setDescription("null").add()
    .createNode(1).setLabel("1").setDescription("Accepted").add()
    .createNode(0).setLabel("0").setDescription("Initial").add()
    // unimplemented start
    .createEdge(2, 1).setLabel("0").add()
    .createEdge(2, 2).setLabel("1").add()
    .createEdge(1, 1).setLabel("0").add()
    .createEdge(1, 3).setLabel("1").add()
    .createEdge(0, 1).setLabel("0").add()
    .createEdge(0, 2).setLabel("1").add()
    // unimplemented end
    .build();

Much more readable, isn't it? To get this you need two builders. First comes the GraphBuilder:

package at.corba.test.builder;

import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
import java.util.Map;

/**
 * Builder for generating graphs.
 * @author ChrLipp
 */
public class GraphBuilder {
    /** List of StateBuilder, accesable via nodeNumber. */
    Map<Integer, StateBuilder> stateBuilderMap = new LinkedHashMap<Integer, StateBuilder>();

    /**
     * Delegates node-specific building to NodeBuilder.
     * @param nodeNumber Number of node to create
     * @return NodeBuilder for the node instance to create.
     */
    public StateBuilder createNode(final int nodeNumber) {
        StateBuilder builder = new StateBuilder(this);
        stateBuilderMap.put(nodeNumber, builder);
        return  builder;
    }

    /**
     * Builder function to initialise the graph.
     */
    public SetBasedDirectedGraph build() {
        SetBasedDirectedGraph graph = new SetBasedDirectedGraph();

        for (int key : stateBuilderMap.keySet()) {
            StateBuilder builder = stateBuilderMap.get(key);
            State state = graph.createNode(key);
            state = builder.build(state);
            graph.addNode(state);
        }

        return graph;
    }
}

and than the StateBuilder:

package at.corba.test.builder;

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

/**
 * Builder for generating states.
 * @author ChrLipp
 */
public class StateBuilder {
    /** Parent builder */
    private final GraphBuilder graphBuilder;

    /** Properties for this node */
    Map<GraphProperties, String> propertyMap = new HashMap<GraphProperties, String>();

    /**
     * ctor.
     * @param graphBuilder  Link to parent builder
     * @param nodeNumber    Node to create
     */
    public StateBuilder(final GraphBuilder graphBuilder)  {
        this.graphBuilder = graphBuilder;
    }

    /**
     * Property setter for property Label.
     * @param label value for property label
     * @return current NodeBuilder instance for method chaining
     */
    public StateBuilder setLabel(final String label) {
        propertyMap.put(GraphProperties.LABEL, label);
        return this;
    }

    /**
     * Property setter for description Label.
     * @param description value for description label
     * @return current NodeBuilder instance for method chaining
     */
    public StateBuilder setDescription(final String description) {
        propertyMap.put(GraphProperties.DESCRIPTION, description);
        return this;
    }

    /**
     * DSL function to close the node section and to return control to the parent builder.
     * @return
     */
    public GraphBuilder add() {
        return graphBuilder;
    }

    /**
     * Builder function to initialise the node.
     * @return newly generated node
     */
    public State build(final State state) {
        for (GraphProperties key : propertyMap.keySet()) {
            String value = propertyMap.get(key);
            state.setProperty(key, value);
        }

        return state;
    }
}

You would do the same for edges, but I did not implement this :-) . In Groovy it is even more easier to create builders (my implementation is a builder written in Java), see for example Make a builder.

A better way of code generator in Java... How about tools like ANTLR, which is a modern tool created specifically for implementing lexers/parsers with code generation support. It has great documentation, including two books:

• The Definitive ANTLR Reference
• Language Implementation Patterns

The last one is useful even when not using ANTLR.

A very simple example is given on the following blog :

http://namanmehta.blogspot.in/2010/01/use-codemodel-to-generate-java-source.html

You might want to have a look at it.

The problem with jcodemodel is that it is internally used by popular code generators like JAX-B and is not well documented. It also don't have any tutorials. But if you want to use this library, you can have a look at different blogs where the users have documented their experience / problem description and resolution .

Best of luck