Programming in Java

String and StringBuilder classes

By
Arvind Kumar
Asst. Professor, LPU
 Introduction
• A string is a sequence of characters.

• In many languages, strings are treated as an array of characters, but in Java a

string is an object.

• Every string we create is actually an object of type String.

• String constants are actually String objects.

• Example:
System.out.println("This is a String, too");

• Objects of type String are immutable i.e. once a String object is created, its
contents cannot be altered.
 Introduction
• In java, four predefined classes are provided that either represent
strings or provide functionality to manipulate them. Those classes
are:
– String
– StringBuffer
– StringBuilder
– StringTokenizer

String, StringBuffer, and StringBuilder classes are defined

in java.lang package and all are final.

All three implements the CharSequence interface.

 Why String Handling?
String handling is required to perform following operations on
some string:
• compare two strings
• search for a substring
• concatenate two strings
• change the case of letters within a string
 String Class
String Constructor:

public String ()
public String (String strObj)
public String (char chars[])
public String (byte asciiChars [])
public String (char chars[ ], int startIndex, int numChars)
public String (byte asciiChars[ ], int startIndex, int
numChars)
 Examples

char [] a = {'c', 'o', 'n', 'g', 'r', 'a', 't', 's'};

byte [] b = {65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72};
String s1 = new String (a); System.out.println(s1);
String s2 = new String (a, 1,5); System.out.println(s2);
String s3 = new String (s1); System.out.println(s3);
String s4 = new String (b); System.out.println(s4);
String s5 = new String (b, 4, 4); System.out.println(s5);

congrats
ongra
congrats
ABCDEFGH
EFGH
 Methods of String class
• String Length:
length() returns the length of the string i.e. number of
characters.

int length()

Example:
char chars[] = { 'a', 'b', 'c' };
String s = new String(chars);
System.out.println(s.length());
 Character Extraction

• charAt(): used to obtain the character from the specified index

from a string.
public char charAt (int index);

Example:
char ch;
ch = "abc".charAt(1);
 Methods Cont…
• getChars(): used to obtain set of characters from the string.

void getChars(int sourceStart, int sourceEnd, char target[ ], int

targetStart)

Example: String s = “KAMAL”;

char b[] = new char [10];
b[0] = ‘N’; b[1] = ‘E’;
b[2] = ‘E’; b[3] = ‘L’;
s.getChars(0, 4, b, 4);
System.out.println(b);

Output: NEELKAMA
 Methods Cont…
• toCharArray(): returns a character array initialized by the
contents of the string.
char [] to Char Array();

Example: String s = “INDIA”;

char c[] = s.toCharArray();
for (int i=0; i<c.length; i++)
{
if (c[i]>= 65 && c[i]<=90)
c[i] += 32;
System.out.println(c);
}
 String Comparison
• equals(): used to compare two strings for equality.
Comparison is case-sensitive.

public boolean equals (Object str)

• equalsIgnoreCase( ): To perform a comparison that ignores case differences.

Note:
• This method is defined in Object class and overridden in String class.

• equals(), in Object class, compares the value of reference not the content.

• In String class, equals method is overridden for content-wise comparison of two

strings.
 Example
class equalsDemo {
public static void main(String args[]) {
String s1 = "Hello";
String s2 = "Hello";
String s3 = "Good-bye";
String s4 = "HELLO";
System.out.println(s1 + " equals " + s2 + " -> " +
s1.equals(s2));
System.out.println(s1 + " equals " + s3 + " -> " +
s1.equals(s3));
System.out.println(s1 + " equals " + s4 + " -> " +
s1.equals(s4));
System.out.println(s1 + " equalsIgnoreCase " + s4 + " -> “
+s1.equalsIgnoreCase(s4));
}
}
 String Comparison
• startsWith( ) and endsWith( ):

– The startsWith( ) method determines whether a given String

begins with a specified string.

– Conversely, endsWith( ) determines whether the String in

question ends with a specified string.

boolean startsWith(String str)

boolean endsWith(String str)
 String Comparison
compareTo( ):

• A string is less than another if it comes before the other in

dictionary order.
• A string is greater than another if it comes after the other in
dictionary order.
int compareTo(String str)
 Example
class SortString {
static String arr[] = {"Now", "is", "the", "time", "for", "all", "good", "men",
"to", "come", "to", "the", "aid", "of", "their", "country"};
public static void main(String args[]) {
for(int j = 0; j < arr.length; j++) {
for(int i = j + 1; i < arr.length; i++) {
if(arr[j].compareTo(arr[i]) > 0) {
String t = arr[j];
arr[j] = arr[i];
arr[i] = t;
}
}
System.out.println(arr[j]);
}
}
}
 String Comparison
boolean regionMatches(int toffset, String other, int ooffset, int len)
• Tests if two string regions are equal

boolean regionMatches(boolean ignoreCase, int toffset, String

other, int ooffset, int len) :
• Tests if two string regions are equal, with case considerations
Example:
System.out.println("Hello".regionMatches(false,0,"hello",0,3));
System.out.println("Hello".regionMatches(true,0,"hello",0,3));
Output
false
true
 Searching Strings
• The String class provides two methods that allow us to search a string for a
specified character or substring:

indexOf( ): Searches for the first occurrence of a character or substring.

int indexOf(int ch)

lastIndexOf( ): Searches for the last occurrence of a character or

substring.
int lastIndexOf(int ch)

• To search for the first or last occurrence of a substring, use

int indexOf(String str)
int lastIndexOf(String str)
• We can specify a starting point for the search using these forms:

int indexOf(int ch, int startIndex)

int lastIndexOf(int ch, int startIndex)
int indexOf(String str, int startIndex)
int lastIndexOf(String str, int startIndex)

• Here, startIndex specifies the index at which point the search begins.

• For indexOf( ), the search runs from startIndex to the end of the
string.

• For lastIndexOf( ), the search runs from startIndex to zero.

 Example
class indexOfDemo {
public static void main(String args[]) {
String s = "Now is the time for all good men " +
"to come to the aid of their country.";
System.out.println(s);
System.out.println("indexOf(t) = " + s.indexOf('t'));
System.out.println("lastIndexOf(t) = " + s.lastIndexOf('t'));
System.out.println("indexOf(the) = " + s.indexOf("the"));
System.out.println("lastIndexOf(the) = " + s.lastIndexOf("the"));
System.out.println("indexOf(t, 10) = " + s.indexOf('t', 10));
System.out.println("lastIndexOf(t, 60) = " + s.lastIndexOf('t', 60));
System.out.println("indexOf(the, 10) = " + s.indexOf("the", 10));
System.out.println("lastIndexOf(the, 60) = " + s.lastIndexOf("the", 60));
}
}
• Converting Characters and Numeric Values to Strings

• The static valueOf method can be used to convert an array of

characters into a string.
 Modifying a String
• Because String objects are immutable, whenever we want to modify a String,
we must either copy it into a StringBuffer or StringBuilder, or use one of the
following String methods, which will construct a new copy of the string with
modifications.

• substring(): used to extract a part of a string.

public String substring (int start_index)
public String substring (int start_index, int end_index)
Example: String s = “ABCDEFG”;
String t = s.substring(2); System.out.println (t);
String u = s.substring (1, 4); System.out.println (u);
CDEFG
BCD
 concat( ): used to concatenate two strings.
String concat(String str)

• This method creates a new object that contains the invoking string
with the contents of str appended to the end.

• concat( ) performs the same function as +.

Example:
String s1 = "one"; String s2 = s1.concat("two");

• It generates the same result as the following sequence:

String s1 = "one"; String s2 = s1 + "two";
replace( ): The replace( ) method has two forms.
• The first replaces all occurrences of one character in the invoking string with
another character. It has the following general form:

String replace(char original, char replacement)

• Here, original specifies the character to be replaced by the character specified by

replacement.

Example: String s = "Hello".replace('l', 'w');

• The second form of replace( ) replaces one character sequence with another. It
has this general form:

String replace(CharSequence original, CharSequence replacement)

trim( )
• The trim( ) method returns a copy of the invoking string from which
any leading and trailing whitespace has been removed.
String trim( )
Example:
String s = " Hello World ".trim();
This puts the string “Hello World” into s.
Changing the Case of Characters Within a String

toLowerCase() & toUpperCase()

• Both methods return a String object that contains the

uppercase or lowercase equivalent of the invoking String.

String toLowerCase( )
String toUpperCase( )
 Java String join
• The java string join() method returns a string joined with given
delimiter.

• In string join method, delimiter is copied for each elements.

• In case of null element, "null" is added.

• The join() method is included in java string since JDK 1.8.

public static String join(CharSequence delimiter,

CharSequence... elements)
 Java String join
class StringJoinDemo
{ public static void main(String args[])
{ String result = String.join(" ", "Alpha", "Beta", "Gamma");
System.out.println(result);
result = String.join(", ", "John", "ID#: 569","E-mail:
John@HerbSchildt.com");
System.out.println(result);
}}

The output is:

Alpha Beta Gamma
John, ID#: 569, E-mail: John@HerbSchildt.com
 Java String intern
• The java string intern() method returns the interned string.

• It returns the canonical representation of string.

• It can be used to return string from pool memory, if it is

created by new keyword.

public String intern()

 Java String intern
public class InternExample
{ public static void main(String args[])
{String s1=new String("hello");
String s2="hello";
String s3=s1.intern();
System.out.println(s1==s2);
System.out.println(s2==s3);
}}
• Output:
false
true
 StringBuilder
• A mutable sequence of characters.

• StringBuilder is non-synchronized.

• The principal operations on a StringBuilder are the append and

insert methods, which are overloaded so as to accept data of
any type. Each effectively converts a given datum to a string
and then appends or inserts the characters of that string to the
string builder.

• The append method always adds these characters at the end of

the builder; the insert method adds the characters at a specified
point.
 Constructors
• StringBuilder()
Constructs a string builder with no characters in it and an
initial capacity of 16 characters.

• StringBuilder(CharSequence seq)
• StringBuilder(int capacity)
• StringBuilder(String str)
 Methods
• public StringBuilder append(String s)
The append() method is overloaded like append(char),
append(boolean), append(int), append(float), append(double)
etc.

• public StringBuilder insert(int offset, String s)

• public StringBuilder replace(int startIndex, int endIndex, String
str)
• public StringBuilder delete(int startIndex, int endIndex)
• public StringBuilder reverse()
• public int capacity()
 Methods
• public void ensureCapacity(int minimumCapacity)

• public char charAt(int index)

• public int length()

• public String substring(int beginIndex)

• public String substring(int beginIndex, int endIndex)