I have a requirement for auditing where I have an Object and a String like so:

Person.getAge()
Person.getName()

"${person.name} is ${person.age} years old."

Is there a simple lighweight solution to this? I hav ewritten my own in the past using BeanUtils...

Have you looked at Velocity?

http://jakarta.apache.org/velocity

Yes, that it a bit heavy for just audit logging I think. Maybe not.

Velocity is probably the lightest one out there that does bean-style translation (templates). It works well as a heavy lifter (e.g.: jsp alternative) but also works well as a simple string formatter:

VelocityEngine engine = new VelocityEngine();
engine.init();
VelocityContext context = new VelocityContext();
context.put("person", person);
engine.evaluate(
    context,
    new OutputStreamWriter(System.out),
    "QUICKIE",
    "$person.name is $person.age yearend old.");

Contexts are lightweight enough create as needed (except in situations where you'd think twice about creating a String :-) The engine should be pre-allocated.

The only part that proves a bit "heavy" for this usage pattern is that it throws unfashionable checked exceptions. A little wrapper classes fixes that in a jiffy.

Michael Abato