Can java’s assert statement allow you to specify a message?

Seems likes it might be useful to have the assert display a message when an assertion fails.

Currently an AssertionError gets thrown, can you specify a custom message for it?

Can you show an example mechanism for doing this (other than creating your own exception type and throwing it)?

Answer

You certainly can:

assert x > 0 : "x must be greater than zero, but x = " + x;

See Programming with Assertions for more information.