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String class in Java

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The string is a sequence of characters. In Java, objects of String are immutable which means a constant and cannot be changed once created.

Creating a String

There are two ways to create string in Java:

1. String literal

String s = “GeeksforGeeks”;

2. Using new keyword

String s = new String (“GeeksforGeeks”);

String Constructors in Java

1. String(byte[] byte_arr)

Construct a new String by decoding the byte array. It uses the platform’s default character set for decoding.

Example:

byte[] b_arr = {71, 101, 101, 107, 115};
String s_byte =new String(b_arr); //Geeks

2. String(byte[] byte_arr, Charset char_set)

Construct a new String by decoding the byte array. It uses the char_set for decoding.

Example:

byte[] b_arr = {71, 101, 101, 107, 115};
Charset cs = Charset.defaultCharset();
String s_byte_char = new String(b_arr, cs); //Geeks

3. String(byte[] byte_arr, String char_set_name)

Construct a new String by decoding the byte array. It uses the char_set_name for decoding. It looks similar to the above constructs and they appear before similar functions but it takes the String(which contains char_set_name) as parameter while the above constructor takes CharSet.

Example:

byte[] b_arr = {71, 101, 101, 107, 115};
String s = new String(b_arr, "US-ASCII"); //Geeks

4. String(byte[] byte_arr, int start_index, int length)

Construct a new string from the bytes array depending on the start_index(Starting location) and length(number of characters from starting location).

Example:

byte[] b_arr = {71, 101, 101, 107, 115};
String s = new String(b_arr, 1, 3); // eek

5. String(byte[] byte_arr, int start_index, int length, Charset char_set)

Construct a new string from the bytes array depending on the start_index(Starting location) and length(number of characters from starting location).Uses char_set for decoding.

Example:

byte[] b_arr = {71, 101, 101, 107, 115};
Charset cs = Charset.defaultCharset();
String s = new String(b_arr, 1, 3, cs); // eek

6. String(byte[] byte_arr, int start_index, int length, String char_set_name)

Construct a new string from the bytes array depending on the start_index(Starting location) and length(number of characters from starting location).Uses char_set_name for decoding.

Example:

byte[] b_arr = {71, 101, 101, 107, 115};
String s = new String(b_arr, 1, 4, "US-ASCII"); // eeks

7. String(char[] char_arr)

Allocates a new String from the given Character array

Example:

char char_arr[] = {'G', 'e', 'e', 'k', 's'};
String s = new String(char_arr); //Geeks

8. String(char[] char_array, int start_index, int count)

Allocates a String from a given character array but choose count characters from the start_index.

Example:

char char_arr[] = {'G', 'e', 'e', 'k', 's'};
String s = new String(char_arr , 1, 3); //eek

9. String(int[] uni_code_points, int offset, int count)

Allocates a String from a uni_code_array but choose count characters from the start_index.

Example:

int[] uni_code = {71, 101, 101, 107, 115};
String s = new String(uni_code, 1, 3); //eek

10. String(StringBuffer s_buffer)

Allocates a new string from the string in s_buffer

Example:

StringBuffer s_buffer = new StringBuffer("Geeks");
String s = new String(s_buffer); //Geeks

11. String(StringBuilder s_builder)

Allocates a new string from the string in s_builder

Example:

StringBuilder s_builder = new StringBuilder("Geeks");
String s = new String(s_builder); //Geeks


String Methods in Java

1. int length()

Returns the number of characters in the String.

"GeeksforGeeks".length();  // returns 13

2. Char charAt(int i)

Returns the character at ith index.

"GeeksforGeeks".charAt(3); // returns  ‘k’

3. String substring (int i)

Return the substring from the ith  index character to end.

"GeeksforGeeks".substring(3); // returns “ksforGeeks”

4. String substring (int i, int j)

Returns the substring from i to j-1 index.

 "GeeksforGeeks".substring(2, 5); // returns “eks”

5. String concat( String str)

Concatenates specified string to the end of this string.

 String s1 = ”Geeks”;
String s2 = ”forGeeks”;
String output = s1.concat(s2); // returns “GeeksforGeeks”

6. int indexOf (String s)

Returns the index within the string of the first occurrence of the specified string.

If String s is not present in input string then -1 is returned as the default value.

1.   String s = ”Learn Share Learn”;
int output = s.indexOf(“Share”); // returns 6
2. String s = "Learn Share Learn"
int output = s.indexOf(“Play”); // return -1

7. int indexOf (String s, int i)

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

 String s = ”Learn Share Learn”;
int output = s.indexOf("ea",3);// returns 13

8. Int lastIndexOf( String s)

Returns the index within the string of the last occurrence of the specified string.

If String s is not present in input string then -1 is returned as the default value.

 1. String s = ”Learn Share Learn”;
int output = s.lastIndexOf("a"); // returns 14
2. String s = "Learn Share Learn"
int output = s.indexOf(“Play”); // return -1

9. boolean equals( Object otherObj)

Compares this string to the specified object.

 Boolean out = “Geeks”.equals(“Geeks”); // returns true
Boolean out = “Geeks”.equals(“geeks”); // returns false

10. boolean  equalsIgnoreCase (String anotherString)

Compares string to another string, ignoring case considerations.

 Boolean out= “Geeks”.equalsIgnoreCase(“Geeks”); // returns true
Boolean out = “Geeks”.equalsIgnoreCase(“geeks”); // returns true

11. int compareTo( String anotherString) 

Compares two string lexicographically.

 int out = s1.compareTo(s2);  
// where s1 and s2 are
// strings to be compared
This returns difference s1-s2. If :
out < 0 // s1 comes before s2
out = 0 // s1 and s2 are equal.
out > 0 // s1 comes after s2.

12. int compareToIgnoreCase( String anotherString) 

Compares two string lexicographically, ignoring case considerations.

 int out = s1.compareToIgnoreCase(s2);  
// where s1 and s2 are
// strings to be compared
This returns difference s1-s2. If :
out < 0 // s1 comes before s2
out = 0 // s1 and s2 are equal.
out > 0 // s1 comes after s2.

Note: In this case, it will not consider case of a letter (it will ignore whether it is uppercase or lowercase).

13. String toLowerCase()

Converts all the characters in the String to lower case.

String word1 = “HeLLo”;
String word3 = word1.toLowerCase(); // returns “hello"

14. String toUpperCase()

Converts all the characters in the String to upper case.

String word1 = “HeLLo”;
String word2 = word1.toUpperCase(); // returns “HELLO”

15. String trim()

Returns the copy of the String, by removing whitespaces at both ends. It does not affect whitespaces in the middle.

String word1 = “ Learn Share Learn “;
String word2 = word1.trim(); // returns “Learn Share Learn”

16. String replace (char oldChar, char newChar)

Returns new string by replacing all occurrences of oldChar with newChar.

String s1 = “feeksforfeeks“;
String s2 = “feeksforfeeks”.replace(‘f’ ,’g’); // returns “geeksforgeeks”

Note: s1 is still feeksforfeeks and s2 is geeksgorgeeks

17. boolean contains(string) :

Returns true if string contains contains the given string

String s1="geeksforgeeks";
String s2="geeks";
s1.contains(s2) // return true

18. Char[] toCharArray():

Converts this String to a new character array.

String s1="geeksforgeeks";
char []ch=s1.toCharArray(); // returns [ 'g', 'e' , 'e' , 'k' , 's' , 'f', 'o', 'r' , 'g' , 'e' , 'e' , 'k' ,'s' ]

19. boolean starsWith(string):

Return true if string starts with this prefix.

String s1="geeksforgeeks";
String s2="geeks";
s1.startsWith(s2) // return true

Example of String Constructor and String Methods

Below is the implementation of the above mentioned topic:

Java
// Java code to illustrate different constructors and methods
// String class.
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;

// Driver Class
class Test
{
      // main function
    public static void main (String[] args)
    {
        String s= "GeeksforGeeks";
        // or String s= new String ("GeeksforGeeks");

        // Returns the number of characters in the String.
        System.out.println("String length = " + s.length());

        // Returns the character at ith index.
        System.out.println("Character at 3rd position = "
                           + s.charAt(3));

        // Return the substring from the ith  index character
        // to end of string
        System.out.println("Substring " + s.substring(3));

        // Returns the substring from i to j-1 index.
        System.out.println("Substring  = " + s.substring(2,5));

        // Concatenates string2 to the end of string1.
        String s1 = "Geeks";
        String s2 = "forGeeks";
        System.out.println("Concatenated string  = " +
                            s1.concat(s2));

        // Returns the index within the string
        // of the first occurrence of the specified string.
        String s4 = "Learn Share Learn";
        System.out.println("Index of Share " +
                           s4.indexOf("Share"));

        // Returns the index within the string of the
        // first occurrence of the specified string,
        // starting at the specified index.
        System.out.println("Index of a  = " +
                           s4.indexOf('a',3));

        // Checking equality of Strings
        Boolean out = "Geeks".equals("geeks");
        System.out.println("Checking Equality  " + out);
        out = "Geeks".equals("Geeks");
        System.out.println("Checking Equality  " + out);

        out = "Geeks".equalsIgnoreCase("gEeks ");
        System.out.println("Checking Equality " + out);

        //If ASCII difference is zero then the two strings are similar
        int out1 = s1.compareTo(s2);
        System.out.println("the difference between ASCII value is="+out1);
        // Converting cases
        String word1 = "GeeKyMe";
        System.out.println("Changing to lower Case " +
                            word1.toLowerCase());

        // Converting cases
        String word2 = "GeekyME";
        System.out.println("Changing to UPPER Case " +
                            word2.toUpperCase());

        // Trimming the word
        String word4 = " Learn Share Learn ";
        System.out.println("Trim the word " + word4.trim());

        // Replacing characters
        String str1 = "feeksforfeeks";
        System.out.println("Original String " + str1);
        String str2 = "feeksforfeeks".replace('f' ,'g') ;
        System.out.println("Replaced f with g -> " + str2);
    }
}

Output
String length = 13
Character at 3rd position = k
Substring ksforGeeks
Substring  = eks
Concatenated string  = GeeksforGeeks
Index of Share 6
Index of a  = 8
Checking Equality  false
Checking Equality ...


For Set – 2 you can refer: Java.lang.String class in Java | Set 2

 This article is contributed by Rahul Agrawal and our helpfull users. 



Last Updated : 14 Mar, 2024
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