Difference between String and Character array in Java
Last Updated :
05 Sep, 2023
Unlike C/C++ Character arrays and Strings are two different things in Java. Both Character Arrays and Strings are a collection of characters but are different in terms of properties. Differences between Strings and Character Arrays:
Strings |
Character Arrays |
String refers to a sequence of characters represented as a single data type. |
Character Array is a sequential collection of data type char. |
Strings are immutable. |
Character Arrays are mutable. |
Built in functions like substring(), charAt() etc can be used on Strings. |
No built in functions are provided in Java for operations on Character Arrays. |
‘+’ can be used to appended strings together to form a new string. |
‘+’ cannot be used to append two Character Arrays. |
The charAt() method can be used to access characters at a particular index in a String. |
The characters in a Character Array can be accessed normally like in any other language by using []. |
Strings can be stored in any manner in the memory. |
Elements in Character Array are stored contiguously in increasing memory locations. |
All Strings are stored in the String Constant Pool. |
All Character Arrays are stored in the Heap. |
Not preferred for storing passwords in Java. |
Preferred for storing passwords in Java. |
A String can be converted into Character Array by using the toCharArray() method of String class. Eg: String s = “GEEKS”; char [] ch = s.toCharArray(); |
A Character Array can be converted into String by passing it into a String Constructor. Eg: char[] a = {‘G’, ‘E’, ‘E’, ‘K’, ‘S’}; String A = new String(a); |
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