String Manipulation in Java
Lecture 5
CGS 3416 Spring 2020
January 21, 2020
Strings in Java
I In Java, a string is an object. It is not a primitive type.
I The String class is used to create and store immutable strings.
I Immutable objects are objects that don’t change once created.
I Kinda like “final” primitive types.
I Class StringBuilder creates objects that store flexible and
changeable strings.
I We’ll learn this later on in the course.
The String class
I Part of java.lang package
I 13 constructors and close to 50 methods
I String class API from java.oracle.com – full listing of String
class features
I Once you build a String object, it is fixed – it cannot be
changed.
I This is easier than it sounds. The only methods that can alter
or set the instance variables are the constructors. All other
methods that seem to change a string do so by returning a
brand new String object
I You can assign a String reference variable to a new string,
discarding the old one
Two ways to construct a String
One constructor allows the use of a string literal as the parameter.
Example string constructions:
String greeting = new String("Hello, World!");
String name = new String("Marvin Dipwart");
String subject = new String("Math");
// Enclose the String literal in quotes, a shorthand
notation for building strings
String sentence = "The quick brown fox sat around for
a while";
// this is not quite equivalent to using the
//constructor above, but you still get a string
//variable
String Pool
Java String literal is created by using double quotes. Before
creating a String literal first looks for String with the same value in
the String pool, if found it returns the reference else it creates a
new String in the pool and returns the reference:
String str1 = "Hello";
String str2 = = "Hello";
String object created using \new" keyword it always
create a new object in heap memory.
String str3 = new String("Hello");
String str4 = new String("Hello");
Don’t try to compare strings by using ==, <, >, etc. These would
only compare the String reference variables, not the String objects
themselves.
The equals() method
equals() – for comparing two strings (i.e. their contents), returns
true or false
if (str1.equals(str2))
System.out.print("The strings are the same");
equalsIgnoreCase() - just like equals(), except that the case of the
letters doesn’t matter in making a match. For instance, ”Apple”
would be equal to ”apple” with this method.
The compareTo() method
compareTo() – also for comparing two strings, good for sorting.
if (str1.compareTo(str2) <0)
System.out.print("str1 comes before str2 in
lexicographic ordering");
else if (str1.compareTo(str2) == 0)
System.out.print("str1 is the same as str2");
else if (str1.compareTo(str2) >0)
System.out.print("str2 comes before str1 in
lexicographic ordering");
Empty Strings
The constructor with no parameters allows the building of an
empty string:
String s = new String();
// s refers to an empty string object
Note that if you only declare a String variable, but you do not
assign it to anything, it is not yet attached to any string:
String s1; // s1 does not refer to any string yet
Concatenation
I concat() – String concatenation. Returns a concatenation of
two strings.
String s1 = "Dog";
String s2 = "food";
String s3 = s1.concat(s2);
//s3 now stores "Dogfood"
//note: s1 and s2 are NOT changed
I The + symbol also performs String concatenation (as we’ve
already used in print statements).
String s1 = "Cat";
String s2 = "nap";
String s3 = s1 + s2;
//s3 now stores "Catnap" (s1, s2 unchanged)
Substrings
I substring() – extracts part of a string and returns it.
I Takes in two parameters (begin index and end index) or 1
parameter (begin index).
I First character in a String has index 0. Substring returned is
the index range [begin,end).
Substrings
String s1 = "Hello, World";
String s2 = s1.substring(0,5);// s2 is now "Hello".
// picks up indices 0 - 4
String s3 = s1.substring(0,7) + "Dolly";
System.out.print(s3);// prints "Hello, Dolly"
System.out.print(s3.substring(4));//prints "o, Dolly"
// can even use substring on string literals
String s4= "What’s up doc?".substring(10,13);
// s4="doc"
String length
I length() – returns a string’s length (number of characters).
String s1 = "Hello";
String s2 = "Goodbye world";
System.out.print(s1.length()); // output: 5
System.out.print(s2.length()); // output: 13
charAt() method
I charAt() – returns a specific character, given an index.
String s1 = "Rumplestiltskin";
System.out.print(s1.charAt(0)); // output: R
System.out.print(s1.charAt(5)); // output: e
System.out.print(s1.charAt(12)); // output: k
Some Conversion methods
I toLowerCase() – returns all lower case version of string
I toUpperCase() – returns all upper case version of string
I trim() – returns a string that eliminates leading and trailing
blank characters from original
I replace() – returns a string with an old character replaced
with a new one. old character and new character passed as
parameters
Examples
String s1 = "Zebra
String s2 = s1.toLowerCase(); // s2 is "zebra"
String s3 = s1.toUpperCase(); // s3 is "ZEBRA"
String s4 = " Apple ";
String s5 = s4.trim(); // s5 is "Apple"
String s6 = s5.replace(‘e’, ‘y’); // s6 is "Apply"
valueOf() method
I valueOf() – there are several of these methods.
I They are static methods, and are used for converting other
values to String objects
int x = 12345;
String s7 = String.valueOf(4.56); // s7 is "4.56"
String s8 = String.valueOf(16); // s8 is "16"
String s9 = String.valueOf(x); // s9 is "12345"
Parsing Strings into other types
String x = "1";
String y = "2";
System.out.println(x+y);
int i = Integer.parseInt(x);
int j = Integer.parseInt(y);
System.out.println(i+j);
String gpa = "3.98;
double gpa2 = Double.parseDouble(gpa);
System.out.println(gpa2 - 1.0);
The StringBuilder Class
I The StringBuilder class is a part of the java.lang
package.
I A StringBuilder object is mutable (i.e. it can be changed).
I Three of the four constructors shown here. Here are sample
creations:
I creates an empty string builder with initial capacity of 16
characters
StringBuilder buf1 = new StringBuilder();
I creates empty string builder with initial capacity given in
parameter
StringBuilder buf2 = new StringBuilder(50);
I creates string builder filled with argument – initial capacity is
length of given string plus 16
StringBuilder buf3 = new StringBuilder("Hello");
The append() method
I append() – adds data to string in the builder object, at the
end. Several versions for different parameter types (see API
for full set)
StringBuilder buf1 = new StringBuilder();
buf1.append("Hello");
buf1.append(‘,’);
buf1.append(" world!");
// buf1 is now "Hello, world!"
buf1.append(‘ ’);
buf1.append(123.45);
// buf1 is now "Hello, world! 123.45"
The insert() method
I insert() – insert data at a certain starting index. Like
append, multiple versions for different types of data (see API
for full set)
StringBuilder buf2 = new StringBuilder();
buf2.append("Welcome home");
// buf2 now "Welcome home"
buf2.insert(8,"to my humble ");
// buf2 = "Welcome to my humble home"
More StringBuilder methods
I delete() – delete data from a string builder object
StringBuilder buf3 = new
StringBuilder("abcdefghijklm");
buf3.delete(4,9);
// deletes indices 4-8. buf3 is now "abcdjklm"
I deleteCharAt() – delete a character at specified index
StringBuilder buf4 = new
StringBuilder("abcdefg");
buf4.deleteCharAt(3); // buf4 is now "abcefg"
buf4.deleteCharAt(1); // buf4 is now "acefg"
More StringBuilder methods
I reverse() – reverses the contents of the string builder
I setCharAt() – sets a character at specified index (similar to
deleteCharAt()
I capacity() – returns current capacity of builder
I length() – returns length of current string in builder (less
than or equal to capacity)
I setLength() – sets the exact length of the string in the
builder to new value (parameter).
I This is the actual string, not the capacity.
I If the new length is smaller than previous length, characters
are truncated from the string.
I If new length bigger, null characters are appended.
I charAt() – returns character at a specified index (parameter)
