Strings

• Java string is a sequence of characters. They are

objects of type String.
• Once a String object is created it cannot be
changed. Stings are Immutable.
• To get changeable strings use the class called
StringBuffer.
• String and StringBuffer classes are declared
final, so there cannot be subclasses of these
classes.
• The default constructor creates an empty string.
String s = new String();
Creating Strings
• String str = "abc"; is equivalent to:
char data[] = {'a', 'b', 'c'};
String str = new String(data);
• If data array in the above example is
modified after the string object str is
created, then str remains unchanged.
• Construct a string object by passing another
string object.
String str2 = new String(str);
String Operations
• The length() method returns the length of the
string.
Eg: System.out.println(“Hello”.length()); // prints 5
• The + operator is used to concatenate two or
more strings.
Eg: String myname = “Harry”
String str = “My name is” + myname+ “.”;
• For string concatenation the Java compiler
converts an operand to a String whenever the
other operand of the + is a String object.
String Operations
• Characters in a string can be extracted in a
number of ways.
public char charAt(int index)
• Returns the character at the specified index. An

index ranges from 0 to length() - 1. The first

character of the sequence is at index 0, the
next at index 1, and so on, as for array
indexing.
char ch;
ch = “abc”.charAt(1); // ch = “b”
String Operations
• getChars() - Copies characters from this string into the
destination character array.
public void getChars(int srcBegin, int srcEnd, char[] dst,
int dstBegin)
• srcBegin - index of the first character in the string to

copy.
• srcEnd - index after the last character in the string to

copy.
• dst - the destination array.

• dstBegin - the start offset in the destination array.

String Operations
• equals() - Compares the invoking string to the
specified object. The result is true if and only if the
argument is not null and is a String object that
represents the same sequence of characters as
the invoking object.
public boolean equals(Object anObject)
• equalsIgnoreCase()- Compares this String to
another String, ignoring case considerations. Two
strings are considered equal ignoring case if they
are of the same length, and corresponding
characters in the two strings are equal ignoring
case.
public boolean equalsIgnoreCase(String
anotherString)
String Operations
• startsWith() – Tests if this String starts with the specified
prefix.
public boolean startsWith(String prefix)
“Figure”.startsWith(“Fig”); // true

public boolean startsWith(String prefix, int toffset)

toffset - where to begin looking in the string.

“figure”.startsWith(“gure”, 2); // true

String Operations
• endsWith() - Tests if this string ends with
the specified suffix.
public boolean endsWith(String suffix)
“Figure”.endsWith(“re”); // true
 String Operations
• compareTo() - Compares two strings lexicographically.
• The result is a negative integer if this String object
lexicographically precedes the argument string.
• The result is a positive integer if this String object
lexicographically follows the argument string.
• The result is zero if the strings are equal.
• compareTo returns 0 exactly when the equals(Object)
method would return true.
public int compareTo(String anotherString)
public int compareToIgnoreCase(String str)
String Operations
indexOf – Searches for the first occurrence of a
character or substring. Returns -1 if the character does
not occur.
public int indexOf(int ch)- Returns the index within this
string of the first occurrence of the specified character.
public int indexOf(String str) - Returns the index within
this string of the first occurrence of the specified
substring.
String str = “How was your day today?”;
str.indexof(‘t’);
str(“was”);
String Operations
public int indexOf(int ch, int fromIndex)- Returns
the index within this string of the first occurrence
of the specified character, starting the search at
the specified index.

public int indexOf(String str, int fromIndex) -

Returns the index within this string of the first
occurrence of the specified substring, starting at
the specified index.

String str = “How was your day today?”;

str.indexof(‘a’, 6);
str(“was”, 2);
 String Operations
lastIndexOf() – Searches for the last occurrence of
a character or substring. The methods are similar
to indexOf().
substring() - Returns a new string that is a
substring of this string. The substring begins with
the character at the specified index and extends to
the end of this string.
public String substring(int beginIndex)
Eg: "unhappy".substring(2) returns "happy"
public String substring(int beginIndex, int endIndex)
Eg: "smiles".substring(1, 5) returns "mile“
String Operations
concat() - Concatenates the specified string to the
end of this string.
If the length of the argument string is 0, then this
String object is returned.
Otherwise, a new String object is created,
containing the invoking string with the contents of
the str appended to it.

public String concat(String str)

"to".concat("get").concat("her") returns "together"
String Operations
• replace()- Returns a new string resulting from
replacing all occurrences of oldChar in this string
with newChar.

public String replace(char oldChar, char newChar)

"mesquite in your cellar".replace('e', 'o') returns

"mosquito in your collar"
String Operations
• trim() - Returns a copy of the string, with leading and trailing
whitespace omitted.
public String trim()

String s = “ Hi Mom! “.trim();

S = “Hi Mom!”

• valueOf() – Returns the string representation of the char array

argument.

public static String valueOf(char[] data)

String Operations
• The contents of the character array are
copied; subsequent modification of the
character array does not affect the newly
created string.
Other forms are:
public static String valueOf(char c)
public static String valueOf(boolean b)
public static String valueOf(int i)
public static String valueOf(long l)
public static String valueOf(float f)
public static String valueOf(double d)
String Operations
• toLowerCase(): Converts all of the characters in
a String to lower case.
• toUpperCase(): Converts all of the characters in
this String to upper case.

public String toLowerCase()

public String toUpperCase()

Eg: “HELLO THERE”.toLowerCase();

“hello there”.toUpperCase();
StringBuffer
• A StringBuffer is like a String, but can be modified.
• The length and content of the StringBuffer
sequence can be changed through certain method
calls.
• StringBuffer defines three constructors:
• StringBuffer()

• StringBuffer(int size)

• StringBuffer(String str)

StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer(“Hello”);

StringBuffer Operations
• The principal operations on a StringBuffer are the
append and insert methods, which are overloaded
so as to accept data of any type.

Here are few append methods:

StringBuffer append(String str)
StringBuffer append(int num)

• The append method always adds these characters

at the end of the buffer.
 StringBuffer Operations
• The insert method adds the characters at a
specified point.

Here are few insert methods:

StringBuffer insert(int index, String str)
StringBuffer append(int index, char ch)

Index specifies at which point the string will be

inserted into the invoking StringBuffer object.
StringBuffer Operations
• delete() - Removes the characters in a substring
of this StringBuffer. The substring begins at the
specified start and extends to the character at
index end - 1 or to the end of the StringBuffer if
no such character exists. If start is equal to end,
no changes are made.

public StringBuffer delete(int start, int end)

 StringBuffer Operations
• replace() - Replaces the characters in a substring of
this StringBuffer with characters in the specified
String.
public StringBuffer replace(int start, int end, String str)
• substring() - Returns a new String that contains a
subsequence of characters currently contained in this
StringBuffer. The substring begins at the specified
index and extends to the end of the StringBuffer.
public String substring(int start)
StringBuffer Operations
• reverse() - The character sequence contained in
this stringbuffer is replaced by the reverse of the
sequence.
public StringBuffer reverse()

• length() - Returns the length of this string buffer.

public int length()
StringBuffer Operations
• capacity() - Returns the current capacity of the
String buffer. The capacity is the amount of
storage available for newly inserted characters.
public int capacity()

• charAt() - The specified character of the

sequence currently represented by the string
buffer, as indicated by the index argument, is
returned.
public char charAt(int index)
StringBuffer Operations
• getChars() - Characters are copied from this
string buffer into the destination character array
dst. The first character to be copied is at index
srcBegin; the last character to be copied is at
index srcEnd-1.
public void getChars(int srcBegin, int srcEnd,
char[] dst, int dstBegin)

• setLength() - Sets the length of the

StringBuffer.
public void setLength(int newLength)
Examples: StringBuffer
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer(“Hello”);
sb.length(); // 5
sb.capacity(); // 21 (16 characters room is
added if no size is specified)
sb.charAt(1); // e
sb.setCharAt(1,’i’); // Hillo
sb.setLength(2); // Hi
sb.append(“l”).append(“l”); // Hill
sb.insert(0, “Big “); // Big Hill
sb.replace(3, 11, “”); // Big
sb.reverse(); // gib