Java String Manipulation: Functions and Methods with EXAMPLE

What are Strings?

A string in literal terms is a series of characters. Hey, did you say characters, isn‟t it a
primitive data type in Java. Yes, so in technical terms, the basic Java String is basically an
array of characters.

Why use Strings?

One of the primary functions of modern computer science, is processing human language.

Similarly to how numbers are important to math, language symbols are important to meaning
and decision making. Although it may not be visible to computer users, computers process
language in the background as precisely and accurately as a calculator. Help dialogs provide
instructions. Menus provide choices. And data displays show statuses, errors, and real-time
changes to the language.

As a Java programmer, one of your main tools for storing and processing language is going to
be the String class.

String Syntax Examples

Now, let‟s get to some syntax, after all, we need to write this in Java code isn‟t it.

String is an array of characters, represented as:

//String is an array of characters

char[] arrSample = {'R', 'O', 'S', 'E'};
String strSample_1 = new String (arrSample);

In technical terms, the String is defined as follows in the above example-

= new (argument);

Now we always cannot write our strings as arrays; hence we can define the String in Java as
follows:

//Representation of String
String strSample_2 = "ROSE";

In technical terms, the above is represented as:

=;

The String Class Java extends the Object class.

String Concatenation:

Concatenation is joining of two or more strings.

Have a look at the below picture-

We have two strings str1 = “Rock” and str2 = “Star”

If we add up these two strings, we should have a result as str3= “RockStar”.

Check the below code snippet,and it explains the two methods to perform string
concatenation.

First is using “concat” method of String class and second is using arithmetic “+” operator.
Both results in the same output

public class Sample_String{

public static void main(String[] args){
//String Concatenation
String str1 = "Rock";
String str2 = "Star";
//Method 1 : Using concat
String str3 = str1.concat(str2);
System.out.println(str3);
//Method 2 : Using "+" operator
String str4 = str1 + str2;
System.out.println(str4);
}
}
Important Java string methods :

Let‟s ask the Java String class a few questions and see if it can answer them ;)

String "Length" Method

How will you determine the length of given String? I have provided a method called as
“length”. Use it against the String you need to find the length.

public class Sample_String{

public static void main(String[] args){ //Our sample string for this tutorial
String str_Sample = "RockStar";
//Length of a String
System.out.println("Length of String: " + str_Sample.length());}}

output:

Length of String: 8

String "indexOf" Method

If I know the length, how would I find which character is in which position? In short, how
will I find the index of a character?

You answered yourself, buddy, there is an “indexOf” method that will help you determine the
location of a specific character that you specify.

public class Sample_String{

public static void main(String[] args){//Character at position
String str_Sample = "RockStar";
System.out.println("Character at position 5: " + str_Sample.charAt(5));
//Index of a given character
System.out.println("Index of character 'S': " + str_Sample.indexOf('S'));}}

Output:

Character at position 5: t
Index of character 'S': 4
String "charAt" Method

Similar to the above question, given the index, how do I know the character at that location?

Simple one again!! Use the “charAt” method and provide the index whose character you need
to find.

public class Sample_String{

public static void main(String[] args){//Character at position
String str_Sample = "RockStar";
System.out.println("Character at position 5: " + str_Sample.charAt(5));}}

Output:

Character at position 5: t
String "CompareTo" Method

Do I want to check if the String that was generated by some method is equal to something
that I want to verify with? How do I compare two Strings?

Use the method “compareTo” and specify the String that you would like to compare.

Use “compareToIgnoreCase” in case you don‟t want the result to be case sensitive.

The result will have the value 0 if the argument string is equal to this string; a value less than
0 if this string is lexicographically less than the string argument; and a value greater than 0 if
this string is lexicographically greater than the string argument.

public class Sample_String{

public static void main(String[] args){//Compare to a String
String str_Sample = "RockStar";
System.out.println("Compare To 'ROCKSTAR': " + str_Sample.compareTo("rockstar"));
//Compare to - Ignore case
System.out.println("Compare To 'ROCKSTAR' - Case Ignored: " +
str_Sample.compareToIgnoreCase("ROCKSTAR"));}}

Output:

Compare To 'ROCKSTAR': -32

Compare To 'ROCKSTAR' - Case Ignored: 0
String "Contain" Method

I partially know what the string should have contained, how do I confirm if the String
contains a sequence of characters I specify?

Use the method “contains” and specify the characters you need to check.

Returns true if and only if this string contains the specified sequence of char values.

public class Sample_String{

public static void main(String[] args){ //Check if String contains a sequence
String str_Sample = "RockStar";
System.out.println("Contains sequence 'tar': " + str_Sample.contains("tar"));}}

Output:

Contains sequence 'tar': true

String "endsWith" Method

How do I confirm if a String ends with a particular suffix? Again you answered it. Use the
“endsWith” method and specify the suffix in the arguments.

Returns true if the character sequence represented by the argument is a suffix of the character
sequence represented by this object.

public class Sample_String{

public static void main(String[] args){ //Check if ends with a particular sequence
String str_Sample = "RockStar";
System.out.println("EndsWith character 'r': " + str_Sample.endsWith("r"));}}

Output:

EndsWith character 'r': true

String "replaceAll" & "replaceFirst" Method

I want to modify my String at several places and replace several parts of the String?

Java String Replace, replaceAll and replaceFirst methods. You can specify the part of the
String you want to replace and the replacement String in the arguments.

public class Sample_String{

public static void main(String[] args){//Replace Rock with the word Duke
String str_Sample = "RockStar";
System.out.println("Replace 'Rock' with 'Duke': " + str_Sample.replace("Rock", "Duke"));}}

Output:

Replace 'Rock' with 'Duke': DukeStar

String Java "tolowercase" & Java "touppercase" Method

I want my entire String to be shown in lower case or Uppercase?

Just use the “toLowercase()” or “ToUpperCase()” methods against the Strings that need to be
converted.

public class Sample_String{

public static void main(String[] args){//Convert to LowerCase
String str_Sample = "RockStar";
System.out.println("Convert to LowerCase: " + str_Sample.toLowerCase());
//Convert to UpperCase
System.out.println("Convert to UpperCase: " + str_Sample.toUpperCase());}}

Output:

Convert to LowerCase: rockstar

Convert to UpperCase: ROCKSTAR
Important Points to Note:

 String is a Final class; i.e once created the value cannot be altered. Thus String
objects are called immutable.
 The Java Virtual Machine(JVM) creates a memory location especially for Strings
called String Constant Pool. That‟s why String can be initialized without „new‟
keyword.
 String class falls under java.lang.String hierarchy. But there is no need to import
this class. Java platform provides them automatically.
 String reference can be overridden but that does not delete the content; i.e., if

String h1 = "hello";

h1 = "hello"+"world";

then "hello" String does not get deleted. It just loses its handle.

 Multiple references can be used for same String but it will occur in the same place;
i.e., if

String h1 = "hello";

String h2 = "hello";

String h3 = "hello";

then only one pool for String “hello” is created in the memory with 3 references-h1,h2,h3

 If a number is quoted in “ ” then it becomes a string, not a number anymore. That

means if

String S1 ="The number is: "+ "123"+"456";

System.out.println(S1);

then it will print: The number is: 123456

If the initialization is like this:

String S1 = "The number is: "+(123+456);

System.out.println(S1);

then it will print: The number is:579 That's all to Strings!

String Length() Method in Java with Example

What is String "Length" Method in Java?

This function is used to get the length of a Java String. The string length method returns the
number of characters written in the String. This method returns the length of any string which
is equal to the number of 16-bit Unicode characters in the string.

String "Length" Method Syntax:

publicint length()

Parameters:

NA

Return Value:

This method returns the length of the string.

Java string Length Method Examples:

In this program, we have two Strings and we find out the length of them using length()
method.

public class Sample_String {

public static void main(String[] args) {
//declare the String as an object S1 S2
String S1 = "Hello Java String Method";
String S2 = "RockStar";

//length() method of String returns the length of a String S1.

int length = S1.length();
System.out.println("Length of a String is: " + length);
//8 Length of a String RockStar
System.out.println("Length of a String is: " + S2.length());
}
}

Output:

Length of a String is: 24

Length of a String is: 8

String indexOf() Method in Java with EXAMPLE

What is Java String IndexOf Method?

The indexOf method is used to get the integer value of a particular index of String type
object, based on criteria specified in the parameters of the IndexOf method.

A common scenario can be when a system admin wants to find the index of the '@' character
of the email Id of a client and then wants to get the remaining substring. In that situation,
IndexOf method can be used.

Syntax

The syntax of this Java method is:

publicintindexOf(int cha)

Parameters

cha − a character.

Return Value

This Java method returns the index within this string of the first occurrence of the specified
character. It returns -1 if the character does not occur.

The Java String IndexOf method has four overloads. All the overloads return an integer type
value, representing the returned index. These overloads differ in the type and number of
parameters they accept.

IndexOf(char b)

This method returns the index of the character 'b' passed as parameter. If that character is not
available in the string, the returned index would be -1.

IndexOf(char c, intstartindex)

The given method would return the index of the first occurrence of character 'c' after the
integer index passed as second parameter "startindex." All the occurrences of character 'c'
before the "startindex" integer index would be ignored.

IndexOf(String substring)

The above method returns the index of the first character of the substring passed as a
parameter to it. If that substring is not available in the string, the returned index would be -1.
IndexOf(String substring, intstartindex)

This Java method returns the index of the first character in the substring passed as the first
parameter, after the "startindex" index value. If substring starts from the passed integer value
of "startindex", that substring would be ignored.

Example

public class Sample_String {

public static void main(String args[]) {

String str_Sample = "This is Index of Example";

//Character at position
System.out.println("Index of character 'x': " + str_Sample.indexOf('x'));
//Character at position after given index value
System.out.println("Index of character 's' after 3 index: " + str_Sample.indexOf('s', 3));
//Give index position for the given substring
System.out.println("Index of substring 'is': " + str_Sample.indexOf("is"));
//Give index position for the given substring and start index
System.out.println("Index of substring 'is' form index:" + str_Sample.indexOf("is", 5));
}
}

Output:

Index of character 'x': 12

Index of character 's' after 3 index: 3
Index of substring 'is': 2
Index of substring 'is' form index:5

String charAt() Method in Java with Example

Why use string "charAt" Method?

The charat method returns the character at the definite index. In this method index value
should be between 0 and string length minus 1

Method Syntax:

public char charAt(int index)

Parameter input:

index – This Java method accepts only single input which is an int data type.

Method Returns:
This method returns a character type data based on the index input

Exception:

Throws java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException if index value is not between 0 and

String length minus one

Example 1:

public class CharAtGuru99 {

public static void main(String args[]) {
String s1 = "This is String CharAt Method";
//returns the char value at the 0 index
System.out.println("Character at 0 position is: " + s1.charAt(0));
//returns the char value at the 5th index
System.out.println("Character at 5th position is: " + s1.charAt(5));
//returns the char value at the 22nd index
System.out.println("Character at 22nd position is: " + s1.charAt(22));
//returns the char value at the 23th index
char result = s1.charAt(-1);
System.out.println("Character at 23th position is: " + result);
}
}

Output:

Character at 0 position is: T

Character at 5th position is: i
Character at 22nd position is: M

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of

range: -1

Some important things about this Java charAt method:

 This Java method takes an argument which is always int type.

 This method returns the character as char for the given int argument. The int value
specifies the index that starts at 0.
 If the index value is higher than string length or a negative, then IndexOutOfBounds
Exception error occurs.
 The index range must be between 0 to string_length-1.

String compareTo() Method in Java with Example

What is compareTo() method in Java?

compareTo() method is used to perform natural sorting on string. Natural sorting means the
sort order which applies on the object, e.g., lexical order for String, numeric order for Sorting
integers, etc.
Lexical order is nothing but alphabetically order. compareTo methods does a sequential
comparison of letters in the string that have the same position.

compareTo is defined in interface java.lang.Comparable

Syntax :

publicintcompareTo(String str)

Parameter input :

str – This method only accepts only one input String data type.

Method Returns:

This Java method returns an intdatatype which is based on the lexicographical comparison
between two strings.

 returns < 0 then the String calling the method is lexicographically first
 returns == 0 then the two strings are lexicographically equivalent
 returns> 0 then the parameter passed to the compareTo method is lexicographically
first.

Let's understand with an example:

Example 1:

public class Sample_String {

public static void main(String[] args) {

String str_Sample = "a";

System.out.println("Compare To 'a' b is : " + str_Sample.compareTo("b"));
str_Sample = "b";
System.out.println("Compare To 'b' a is : " + str_Sample.compareTo("a"));
str_Sample = "b";
System.out.println("Compare To 'b' b is : " + str_Sample.compareTo("b"));
}

Output

Compare To 'a' b is : -1
Compare To 'b' a is : 1
Compare To 'b' b is : 0

Here,

 Character a comes before b alphabetically. Hence output is -1

 Character b comes after a alphabetically. Hence output is 1
  Character b are equivalent, hence output is 0.

You can use method Use "compareToIgnoreCase" in case you don't want the result to be case
sensitive.

Example 2:

public class Sample_String {

public static void main(String[] args) {
//Compare to a String
String str_Sample = "RockStar";
System.out.println("Compare To 'ROCKSTAR': " + str_Sample.compareTo("rockstar"));
//Compare to - Ignore case
System.out.println("Compare To 'ROCKSTAR' - Case Ignored: " +
str_Sample.compareToIgnoreCase("ROCKSTAR"));
}
}

Output

Compare To 'ROCKSTAR': -32

Compare To 'ROCKSTAR' - Case Ignored: 0

When to use CompareTo() method?

CompareTo() is used for comparing two strings lexicographically. Each character of both
strings are converted into a Unicode value. However, if both the strings are equal, then this
method returns 0 else it only result either negative or positive value.

In this method, if the first string is always lexicographically higher than second string, it
returns a positive number.

if a1 > a2, it returns negative number

if a1 < a2, it returns positive number

if a1 == a2, it returns 0

Example 3:

public class Compare {

public static void main(String[] args) {
String s1 = "Guru1";
String s2 = "Guru2";
System.out.println("String 1: " + s1);
System.out.println("String 2: " + s2);

// Compare the two strings.

int S = s1.compareTo(s2);
 // Show the results of the comparison.
if (S < 0) { System.out.println("\"" + s1 + "\"" + " is lexicographically higher than " + "\"" +
s2 + "\"");
} else if (S == 0) {
System.out.println("\"" + s1 + "\"" + " is lexicographically equal to " + "\"" + s2 + "\"");
} else if (S > 0) {
System.out.println("\"" + s1 + "\"" + " is lexicographically less than " + "\"" + s2 + "\"");
}
}
}

Output:

String 1: Guru1
String 2: Guru2
"Guru1" is lexicographically higher than "Guru2"

String contains() Method in Java with Example

What is contains()method in Java?

The contains() method is Java method to check if String contains another substring or not. It
returns boolean value so it can use directly inside if statements.

Syntax of String "Contain" method

publicbooleanString.contains(CharSequence s)

Parameters

S − This is the sequence to search

Return Value

This method returns true only if this string contains "s" else false.

Exception

NullPointerException − if the value of s is null.

Example 1:

public class Sample_String {

public static void main(String[] args) {
String str_Sample = "This is a String contains Example";
//Check if String contains a sequence
System.out.println("Contains sequence 'ing': " + str_Sample.contains("ing"));
System.out.println("Contains sequence 'Example': " + str_Sample.contains("Example"));
 //String contains method is case sensitive
System.out.println("Contains sequence 'example': " + str_Sample.contains("example"));
System.out.println("Contains sequence 'is String': " + str_Sample.contains("is String"));
}
}

Output:

Contains sequence 'ing': true

Contains sequence 'Example': true
Contains sequence 'example': false
Contains sequence 'is String': false

When to use Contains() method?

It is a common case in programming when you want to check if specific String contains a
particular substring. For example, If you want to test if the String "The big red fox" contains
the substring "red." This method is useful in such situation.

Example 2: Java String contains() method in the if else Loop

public class IfExample {

public static void main(String args[]) {
String str1 = "Java string contains If else Example";
// In If-else statements you can use the contains() method

if (str1.contains("example")) {
System.out.println("The Keyword :example: is found in given string");
} else {
System.out.println("The Keyword :example: is not found in the string");
}
}
}

Output:

The Keyword :example: is not found in the string

String endsWith() Method in Java with Example

What is String "endsWith" Method?

The Java endsWith method is used to check whether the string is ending with user-specified
substring or not. Based on this comparison it will return boolean True or False.

Syntax

Public endsWith(suffix)
Parameters

suffix – This is a suffix.

Return Value

 False: Character sequence supplied in "suffix" DOES NOT matches the end sequence
of the calling string
 True: Character sequence supplied in "suffix" matches the end sequence of the
calling string

Exception

None

Example:

public class StringEx1 {

public static void main(String[] args) {
String str_Sample = "Java String endsWith example";
//Check if ends with a particular sequence
System.out.println("EndsWith character 'e': " + str_Sample.endsWith("e"));
System.out.println("EndsWith character 'ple': " + str_Sample.endsWith("ple"));
System.out.println("EndsWith character 'Java': " + str_Sample.endsWith("Java"));
}
}

Output:

EndsWith character 'e': true

EndsWith character 'ple': true
EndsWith character 'Java': false

The java.lang.String.endsWith() returns true if this string ends with the specified suffix.

Java String has three types of Replace method

1. replace
2. replaceAll
3. replaceFirst.

With the help of these you can replace characters in your string. Lets study each in details:

1. Java String replace() Method

Description:

This Java method returns a new string resulting from replacing every occurrence of
characters with a new characters
Syntax:

publicStr replace(char oldC, char newC)

Parameters:

oldCh − old character.

newCh − new character.

Return Value

This fucntion returns a string by replacing oldCh with newCh.

Example 1

public class Guru99Ex1 {

public static void main(String args[]) {
String S1 = new String("the quick fox jumped");
System.out.println("Original String is ': " + S1);
System.out.println("String after replacing 'fox' with 'dog': " + S1.replace("fox", "dog"));
System.out.println("String after replacing all 't' with 'a': " + S1.replace('t', 'a'));

}
}

Output:

Original String is ': the quick fox jumped

String after replacing 'fox' with 'dog': the quick dog jumped
String after replacing all 't' with 'a': ahe quick fox jumped

2.Java String Replaceall()

Description

The java string replaceAll() method returns a string replacing all the sequence of characters
matching regular expression and replacement string.

Signature:

publicStrreplaceAll(String regex, String replacement)

Parameters:

regx: regular expression

replacement: replacement sequence of characters

Example 2

public class Guru99Ex2 {

public static void main(String args[]) {
String str = "Guru99 is a site providing free tutorials";
//remove white spaces
String str2 = str.replaceAll("\\s", "");
System.out.println(str2);
}
}

Output:

Guru99isasiteprovidingfreetutorials

3. Java - String replaceFirst() Method

Description

The method replaces the first substring of the given string which matches that regular
expression.

Syntax

publicStrreplaceFirst(String rgex, String replacement)

Parameters

rgex − the regular expression to which given string need to matched.

replacement − the string that replaces regular expression.

Return Value

This method returns resulting String as an output.

Example 3:

public class Guru99Ex2 {

public static void main(String args[]) {
String str = "This website providing free tutorials";
//Only Replace first 's' with '9'
String str1 = str.replaceFirst("s", "9");
System.out.println(str1);
}
}
Output:

Thi9 website providing free tutorials

Java String toLowercase() and toUpperCase() Methods

1. tolowercase() method

This Java string method converts every character of the particular string into the lower case
by using the rules of the default locale.

Note: This method is locale sensitive. Therefore it can show unexpected results if used for
strings which are intended to be interpreted separately.

Syntax

public String toLowerCase()

Parameters

NA

Return Value

It returns the String, which is converted to lowercase.

Example 1:

public class Guru99 {

public static void main(String args[]) {
String S1 = new String("UPPERCASE CONVERTED TO LOWERCASE");
//Convert to LowerCase
System.out.println(S1.toLowerCase());

}
}

Output:

uppercase converted to lowercase

2. toUppercase () method

The toUppercase() method is used to convert all the characters in a given string to upper case.

Syntax:
toUpperCase()

Parameters:

NA

Returns value:

String in an uppercase letter.

Example 2:

public class Guru99 {

public static void main(String args[]) {
String S1 = new String("lowercase converted to uppercase");
//Convert to UpperCase
System.out.println(S1.toUpperCase());
}
}

Output:

LOWERCASE CONVERTED TO UPPERCASE

How to easily Convert String to Integer in JAVA

There are two ways to convert String to Integer in Java,

1. String to Integer using Integer.parseInt()

2. String to Integer using Integer.valueOf()

Let‟s say you have a string – strTest - that contains a numeric value.
String strTest = “100”;
Try to perform some arithmetic operation like divide by 4 – This immediately shows you a
compilation error.

classStrConvert{
public static void main(String []args){
String strTest = "100";
System.out.println("Using String:" + (strTest/4));
}
}

Output:

/StrConvert.java:4: error: bad operand types for binary operator '/'

System.out.println("Using String:" + (strTest/4));
Hence, you need to convert a String to int before you peform numeric operations on it

Example 1: Convert String to Integer using Integer.parseInt()

Syntax of parseInt method as follows:

int<IntVariableName> = Integer.parseInt(<StringVariableName>);

Pass the string variable as the argument.

This will convert the Java String to java Integer and store it into the specified integer
variable.

Check the below code snippet-

classStrConvert{
public static void main(String []args){
String strTest = "100";
intiTest = Integer.parseInt(strTest);
System.out.println("Actual String:"+ strTest);
System.out.println("Converted to Int:" + iTest);
//This will now show some arithmetic operation
System.out.println("Arithmetic Operation on Int: " + (iTest/4));
}
}

Output:

Actual String:100
Converted to Int:100
Arithmetic Operation on Int: 25

Example 2: Convert String to Integer using Integer.valueOf()

Integer.valueOf() Method is also used to convert String to Integer in Java.

Following is the code example shows the process of using Integer.valueOf() method:

public class StrConvert{

public static void main(String []args){
String strTest = "100";
//Convert the String to Integer using Integer.valueOf
intiTest = Integer.valueOf(strTest);
System.out.println("Actual String:"+ strTest);
System.out.println("Converted to Int:" + iTest);
//This will now show some arithmetic operation
System.out.println("Arithmetic Operation on Int:" + (iTest/4));
}
}

Output:

Actual String:100
Converted to Int:100
Arithmetic Operation on Int:25

NumberFormatException

NumberFormatException is thrown If you try to parse an invalid number string. For example,
String „Guru99‟ cannot be converted into Integer.

Example:

public class StrConvert{

public static void main(String []args){
String strTest = "Guru99";
intiTest = Integer.valueOf(strTest);
System.out.println("Actual String:"+ strTest);
System.out.println("Converted to Int:" + iTest);
}
}

Above example gives following exception in output:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: "Guru99"