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CHAPTER 9 STRINGS

9.2 The String Class

9.2.1 Constructing a String
9.2.3 String Comparisons
9.2.4 String Length, Characters, and Combining Strings
9.2.5 Obtaining Substrings
9.2.6 Converting, Replacing, and Splitting Strings
 9.2.1 CONSTRUCTING A STRING
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• A string is a sequence of characters.

• Constructing a String:

To create a string use the syntax:

String s = new String(stringLiteral);

Example:
String s = new String("Welcome to Java");
Java treats a string literal as a String object. Thus, the
following statement is also valid:
String s = "Welcome to Java";
 STRINGS ARE IMMUTABLE
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A String object is immutable; its contents cannot be changed.

Does the following code change the contents of the string?
String s = "Java";
s = "HTML";
animation
TRACE CODE
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String s = "Java";
s = "HTML";

After executing String s = "Java"; After executing s = "HTML";

s : String s : String This string object is

now unreferenced
String object for "Java" String object for "Java"

Contents cannot be changed : String

String object for "HTML"

animation
TRACE CODE
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String s = "Java";
s = "HTML";

After executing String s = "Java"; After executing s = "HTML";

s : String s : String This string object is

now unreferenced
String object for "Java" String object for "Java"

Contents cannot be changed : String

String object for "HTML"

 9.2.3 STRING COMPARISONS
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java.lang.String
+equals(s1: String): boolean
+equalsIgnoreCase(s1: String):
boolean
+compareTo(s1: String): int
+compareToIgnoreCase(s1: String):
int
+regionMatches(index: int, s1: String,
s1index: int, len: int): boolean
+startsWith(prefix: String): boolean
+endsWith(suffix: String): boolean
Returns true if this string is equal to string s1.
Returns true if this string is equal to string s1 case-
insensitive.
Returns an integer greater than 0, equal to 0, or less than 0
to indicate whether this string is greater than, equal to, or
less than s1.
Same as compareTo except that the comparison is case-
insensitive.
Returns true if the specified subregion of this string exactly
matches the specified subregion in string s1.
Returns true if this string starts with the specified prefix.
Returns true if this string ends with the specified suffix.
 STRING COMPARISONS (CONTINUED)
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• equals() is used to compare the contents of strings

String s1 = new String("Welcome");

String s2 = "Welcome";
String s3 = "Hi";

if (s1.equals(s2))
// checks if s1 and s2 have the same contents
// For the above example it gives true
if (s1.equals(s3))
// checks if s1 and s3 have the same contents
// For the above example it gives false
 STRING COMPARISONS (CONTINUED)
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• == is used to compare the string references

String s1 = new String("Welcome");

String s2 = "Welcome";
String s3 = s1;

if (s1 == s2)
// checks if s1 and s2 have the same reference
// For the above example it gives false
if (s1 == s3) {
// checks if s1 and s3 have the same reference
// For the above example it gives true
 STRING COMPARISONS (CONTINUED)
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• equalsIgnoreCase()
Ignores the letter case (lower versus upper case) when comparing

String s1 = new String("Welcome");

String s2 = "welcome";

if (s1.equals(s2))
// gives false since w is different from W
if (s1.equalsIgnoreCase(s2))
// gives true since w and W are considered the same
 STRING COMPARISONS (CONTINUED)
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• compareTo()

s1.compareTo(s2)
This method returns 0 if s1 is equal to s2, a value less than 0 if s1 is
lexicographically (i.e., in terms of Unicode ordering) less than s2,
and a value greater than 0 if s1 is lexicographically greater than s2.
String s1 = new String("Welcome");
String s2 = "Welcome";
if (s1.compareTo(s2) > 0) // is s1 greater than s2?

if (s1.compareTo(s2) < 0) // is s1 smaller than s2?

if (s1.compareTo(s2) == 0) // do s1 and s2 have the same contents?

STRING COMPARISONS (CONTINUED)
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• compareTo()

String s1 = "abc", s2 = "abc";

String s3 = "aba", s4 = "abd";
int x;
x = s1.compareTo(s2);
// x = 0 since s1 and s2 are equal

x = s1.compareTo(s3);
// x > 0 since s1 > s3 because ‘c’ is > ‘a’ (‘c’ = 99 & ‘a’ = 97)
// See ASCII Table

x = s1.compareTo(s4);
// x < 0 since s1 < s4 because ‘c’ is < ‘d’ (‘c’ = 99 & ‘d’ = 100)
STRING COMPARISONS (CONTINUED)
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• compareToIgnoreCase()

String s1 = "abc", s2 = "ABC";

int x;

x = s1.compareTo(s2);
// x > 0 since s1 > s2 because ‘a’ > ‘A’ (‘a’ = 97, ‘A’ = 65)

x = s1.compareToIgnoreCase(s2);
// x = 0 since s1 and s2 are equal when the case is ignored
 STRING COMPARISONS (CONTINUED)
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• regionMatches()

This method compares portions of two strings for equality.

regionMatches(index: int, s1: String, s1Index: int, len: int): boolean

String s1 = "scde", s2 = "abcdef";

if (s1.regionMatches(1,s2,2,3))
// 1 is the starting index in s1, and 2 is the starting index in s2, 3
is the length or the number of characters to be compared.
 STRING COMPARISONS (CONTINUED)
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• startsWith(prefix) to check whether string starts with a

specified prefix.
• endsWith(suffix) to check whether string ends with a specified
suffix.

String s = "howtodoinjava.com";

if(s.startsWith("how")) // gives true

if(s.startsWith("howl")) // gives false

if(s.endsWith("com")) // gives true

if(s.endsWith("dom")) // gives false
 9.2.4 STRING LENGTH, CHARACTERS,
AND
15 COMBINING STRINGS

java.lang.String
+length(): int
+charAt(index: int): char
+concat(s1: String): String
Returns the number of characters in this string.
Returns the character at the specified index from this string.
Returns a new string that concatenate this string with string s1.
string.
FINDING STRING LENGTH
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Finding string length using the length() method:

String s = "Welcome";
int len = s.length(); // len = 7
 RETRIEVING A CHAR IN A STRING
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String message = "Welcome to Java";

We cannot use message[index]

Instead we use message.charAt(index)

Index starts from 0

Indices 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

message W e l c o m e t o J a v a

message.charAt(0) message.length() is 15 message.charAt(14)

RETRIEVING A CHAR IN A STRING
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String message = "Welcome";

for (int i = 0; i < message.length(); i++)
System.out.println(message.charAt(i));

Output
W
e
l
c
o
m
e
 STRING CONCATENATION
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String s1 = "Welcome", s2 = " to Java";

String s3 = s1.concat(s2);
S3 will contain the string “Welcome to Java”.
The conact method does the same job as the string
concatenation operator (+).
String s3 = s1 + s2;

The difference is that the + can applied between a string

value and a value from another type such as int or char. The
method concat( ) works only with the String type.
 9.2.5 OBTAINING SUBSTRINGS
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java.lang.String
+substring(beginIndex: int): Returns this string’s substring that begins with the character at the
String specified beginIndex and extends to the end of the string.

+substring(beginIndex: int, Returns this string’s substring that begins at the specified
endIndex: int): String beginIndex and extends to the character at index endIndex – 1.
Note that the character at endIndex is not part of the substring.

You can extract a single character from a string using the charAt
method. You can also extract a substring from a string using the
substring method in the String class.
 OBTAINING SUBSTRINGS (CONTINUED)
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String s1 = "Welcome to Java";

To extract the substring from index 11 till the end we write:
String s2 = s1.substring(11);
Now S2 will contain the string “Java”.

Indices 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

message W e l c o m e t o J a v a

message.substring(0, 11) message.substring(11)

 OBTAINING SUBSTRINGS (CONTINUED)
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String s1 = "Welcome to Java";

To extract the substring from index 0 till index 10 we write:
String s2 = s1.substring(0,11);
Now S2 will contain the string “Welcome to ” including a space at the
end. Note that the character at index 11 is not part of the substring.

Indices 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

message W e l c o m e t o J a v a

message.substring(0, 11) message.substring(11)

9.2.6 CONVERTING, REPLACING,
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AND SPLITTING STRINGS
java.lang.String
+toLowerCase(): String
+toUpperCase(): String
+trim(): String
+replace(oldChar: char, newChar:
char): String
+replaceFirst(oldString: String,
newString: String): String
+replaceAll(oldString: String,
newString: String): String
+replace(oldString: String,
newString: String): String
+split(delimiter: String): String[]
Returns a new string with all characters converted to lowercase.
Returns a new string with all characters converted to uppercase.
Returns a new string with blank characters trimmed on both sides.
Returns a new string that replaces all matching character in this string
with the new character.
Returns a new string that replaces the first matching substring in this
string with the new substring.
Returns a new string that replace all matching substrings in this string
with the new substring.
Works exactly like replaceAll.
Returns an array of strings consisting of the substrings split by the
delimiter.
 EXAMPLES
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"Welcome".toLowerCase() returns a new string, welcome.

"Welcome".toUpperCase() returns a new string, WELCOME.

" Welcome to Java ".trim() returns a new string, Welcome to Java.

"Welcome".replace('e', 'A') returns a new string, WAlcomA.

"Welcome".replaceFirst("e", "AB") returns a new string, WABlcome.

"Welcome".replaceAll("e", "AB") returns a new string, WABlcomAB.

"Welcome".replace("e", "AB") returns a new string, WABlcomAB.

 SPLITTING A STRING – EXAMPLE 1
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The split method can be used to extract tokens from a string with the specified delimiters.
For example, in the following code the delimiter is the string “#”.

String s = "Java#HTML#Perl";
String[] tokens = s.split("#");
for (int i = 0; i < tokens.length; i++)
System.out.print(tokens[i] + " ");
The delimiter # is not stored in the array tokens (an array of
strings).
0 Java
The output will be:
tokens 1 HTML Java HTML Perl
2 Perl
 SPLITTING A STRING – EXAMPLE 2
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The delimiter can be composed of more than one character since it is a string. For example,
in the following code the delimiter is “ab”.

String s = "cdabefabgh";
String[] tokens = s.split("ab");
for (int i = 0; i < tokens.length; i++)
System.out.print(tokens[i]+ " ");

0 cd The output will be:

1 ef cd ef gh
tokens
2 gh
 SPLITTING A STRING – EXAMPLE 3
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The delimiter can be a space.

String s = "Welcome to Java";

String[] tokens = s.split(" ");
for (int i = 0; i < tokens.length; i++)
System.out.println(tokens[i]);

The output will be:

Welcome
0 Welcome to
Java
tokens 1 to
2 Java
 THE “.” DELIMITER
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If want to split a string using the delimiter dot “.” such as

String a = "a.jpg";
String [ ] str = a.split(".");

The split does not work because "." is a reserved character.

Instead, we should use the following statement:
String [ ] str = a.split("\\.");

0 a
str
1 jpg