Java charAt Examples (String For Loop)

Use the charAt method to access characters from a string. Handle an exception and test performance.

CharAt. This method returns a character in a string at a certain index. The index is the argument. A valid index (one found in the string) must be used.Strings

Returns a value. CharAt returns a value, a character, that is similar to an int. Meanwhile substring() returns a new string. We find it is faster to use charAt when possible.

Example, for-loop. Often we want to loop over the characters in a string. In this example we use charAt inside a for-loop. We display each character c to the console.

Tip: For a three-character string, the valid indexes are 0, 1 and 2. The last index is equal to the length minus 1.

Java program that uses charAt, for-loop public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { String value = "cat"; // Loop through all characters in the string. // ... Use charAt to get the values. for (int i = 0; i < value.length(); i++) { char c = value.charAt(i); System.out.println(c); } } } Output c a t

First, last chars. We use the charAt method to get first and last characters in a string (and also ones at certain offsets). Here we get the first two and last two chars.

Java program that uses first, second, last characters public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { String value = "intercept"; // First two characters. System.out.println(value.charAt(0)); System.out.println(value.charAt(1)); // Last two characters. System.out.println(value.charAt(value.length() - 1)); System.out.println(value.charAt(value.length() - 2)); } } Output i n t p

Out of bounds exception. We must be careful when using charAt. If we pass a negative index or an index that is past the last character in the string, we get an exception.

Note: In real programs, it is typically faster to check before accessing an index. Causing an exception is slow.

Java program that causes charAt exception public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { String value = "abc"; // Access a character out-of-range. char error = value.charAt(100); System.out.println(error); // Not reached. } } Output Exception in thread "main" java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: 100 at java.lang.String.charAt(Unknown Source) at Program.main(Program.java:6)

Benchmark, charAt versus substring. Sometimes we can choose between charAt and substring calls. In my testing, I found charAt is faster to call.

Version 1: This version of the code uses charAt to test a character in a string. It also uses an if-statement.

Version 2: Here we use substring: we get a 1-character substring from the string, and test it in an if-statement.

Substring

Result: Using charAt to test a character is many times faster than taking a 1-character substring.

Java program that times charAt versus substring public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { // The example string. String value = "cat"; // Test results of our methods. System.out.println(value.charAt(2)); System.out.println(value.substring(2, 3)); long t1 = System.currentTimeMillis(); // Version 1: use charAt to test characters in a string. int count = 0; for (int i = 0; i < 10000000; i++) { if (value.charAt(2) == 't') { count++; } } long t2 = System.currentTimeMillis(); // Version 2: use substring to test characters in a string. count = 0; for (int i = 0; i < 10000000; i++) { if (value.substring(2, 3) == "t") { count++; } } long t3 = System.currentTimeMillis(); // ... Times. System.out.println(count); System.out.println(t2 - t1); System.out.println(t3 - t2); } } Output t t 0 5 ms: charAt 114 ms: substring

A review. Often we need to access in strings. With charAt, we have a simple and fast way to do this. We must check that an index is within range for the string.

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Java charAt Examples (String For Loop)

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