It will work if toString() contains all data needed to restore the object. For example it will work for map of strings (where string is used as key and value):
// create map
Map<String, String> map = new HashMap<String, String>();
// populate the map
// create string representation
String str = map.toString();
// use properties to restore the map
Properties props = new Properties();
props.load(new StringReader(str.substring(1, str.length() - 1).replace(", ", "\n")));
Map<String, String> map2 = new HashMap<String, String>();
for (Map.Entry<Object, Object> e : props.entrySet()) {
map2.put((String)e.getKey(), (String)e.getValue());
}
This works although I really do not understand why do you need this.