Java StringBuilder Examples

Use the StringBuilder class to append Strings. Benchmark and test StringBuilder.

StringBuilder. When considered as a whole, the pyramid is impossibly difficult to build. It has great weight and size. But each stone is added separately—in this way it becomes possible.

To create large strings, we consider each string separately as well. Concatenation ("+") becomes slow. StringBuilder (a buffer) solves this problem. It speeds up appends and inserts.

Loop example. Here we import java.lang.StringBuilder. We use StringBuilder in a for-loop. StringBuilder optimizes cases where many append() calls occur.

Part 1: We create a StringBuilder. Then we use a for-loop and append 5 strings to the StringBuilder.

For

Part 2: We convert the data into a String object. We display the resulting String to the Console with the System.out.println method.

Strings

Java program that uses StringBuilder import java.lang.StringBuilder; public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { // Part 1: create a new StringBuilder. StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(); // ... Loop and append values. for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) { builder.append("abc "); } // Part 2: convert to string. String result = builder.toString(); // ... Print result. System.out.println(result); } } Output abc abc abc abc abc

Values. The StringBuilder can append many types of data. We are not restricted to strings. With the append() method, we can add ints, doubles, chars—any numeric type.

Part A: We call append() on the result of a previous append() call. Append returns the original StringBuilder.

Part B: We get a String instance from the StringBuilder with toString(), and write the String to the screen.

Java program that appends values import java.lang.StringBuilder; public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { int value1 = 300; double value2 = 3.14; short value3 = 5; char value4 = 'A'; // Part A: create StringBuilder and add 4 values to it. StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(); builder.append(value1).append("\n"); builder.append(value2).append("\n"); builder.append(value3).append("\n"); builder.append(value4); // Part B: display results. String result = builder.toString(); System.out.println(result); } } Output 300 3.14 5 A

Insert. A StringBuilder has a mutable buffer. So we can quickly append, or insert, data. Here we use the insert method. It receives 2 arguments: an index, and a value we want to insert.

Index: This is the first argument. To insert after the second character, use the value 2. And to insert at the start, use zero.

String: We pass a string (or other value) as the second argument. This is the data that is placed into the StringBuilder.

Java program that uses insert import java.lang.StringBuilder; public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { // Initialize StringBuilder with this value. StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder("abc"); // Insert this substring at position 2. builder.insert(2, "xyz"); System.out.println(builder); } } Output abxyzc

IndexOf. A StringBuilder can be searched. We use the indexOf method to search for a substring within the StringBuilder's data. This method searches forward.

Found: If the substring is found within the StringBuilder, the first index where it occurs is returned as an int.

Not found: If no matching substring is found, the special value negative one is returned. We must often check for -1 when using indexOf.

Java program that uses indexOf import java.lang.StringBuilder; public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder("abc"); // Try to find this substring. int result = builder.indexOf("bc"); System.out.println(result); // This substring does not exist. int result2 = builder.indexOf("de"); System.out.println(result2); } } Output 1 -1

Delete. This removes a range of characters. We pass it 2 int arguments. The first argument is the start index where removal is to begin. And the second argument is the end index.

Java program that uses delete import java.lang.StringBuilder; public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder("carrot"); // Delete characters from index 2 to index 5. builder.delete(2, 5); System.out.println(builder); } } Output cat

Replace. This method accepts 2 indexes and replaces the characters in that range with a specified String. Replace on StringBuilder works differently than replace() on Strings.Replace

Java program that uses replace method import java.lang.StringBuilder; public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { // Create new StringBuilder. StringBuilder b = new StringBuilder("abc"); // Replace second character with "xyz". b.replace(1, 2, "xyz"); System.out.println(b); } } Output axyzc

Combine 2 StringBuilders. We can append one StringBuilder to another. We simply call append() and pass the second StringBuilder as an argument. The 2 StringBuilders are combined.

Java program that combines StringBuilders public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder("cat"); StringBuilder builder2 = new StringBuilder("dog"); // Combine 2 StringBuilders. builder.append(builder2); System.out.println(builder); } } Output catdog

Substring. This method is found on the AbstractStringBuilder class. It provides the useful ability to extract a range of characters into a new string.

Arguments: The first argument is the start index of the desired substring. The second argument is last index (not the character count).

Java program that uses substring import java.lang.StringBuilder; public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(); builder.append("Forest"); // Get substring after the first 2 characters. String omitFirstTwo = builder.substring(2); System.out.println(omitFirstTwo); // Get only the first 2 characters in a substring. String firstTwo = builder.substring(0, 2); System.out.println(firstTwo); } } Output rest Fo

Loop over chars. A for-loop can iterate over the characters in a StringBuilder. We access the length() method to get the StringBuilder's size and then use charAt() to access chars.

Length: This method returns the count of characters in the StringBuilder. The highest index is the count of chars minus one.

CharAt: This accesses a character within the StringBuilder. We can use it anywhere, not just in a for-loop.

Java program that loops over StringBuilder chars import java.lang.StringBuilder; public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder("magic"); // Loop over the characters in this StringBuilder. for (int i = 0; i < builder.length(); i++) { System.out.println(builder.charAt(i)); } } } Output m a g i c

SetLength. We can modify the length of a StringBuilder with setLength. This often is useful when we want to shorten or reduce the number of characters in the object.

Java program that uses setLength method import java.lang.StringBuilder; public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder("carrot"); // Use setLength to remove characters from the end. builder.setLength(3); System.out.println(builder); } } Output car

Capacity. Internally a StringBuilder resizes as its character count increases. This is slow. With a larger capacity, set in the constructor, we avoid these resizes.StringBuilder capacity

Java program that uses capacity import java.lang.StringBuilder; public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { // Use a 100-char capacity. StringBuilder temp = new StringBuilder(100); // Add 100 characters to the StringBuilder. // ... Theoretically this is faster. for (int i = 0; i < 25; i++) { temp.append("1234"); } System.out.println(temp.length()); } } Output 100

Reverse. This example reverses a StringBuilder. It calls the reverse() method. This is an easy to reverse a string—we first must place its contents in a StringBuilder.

Java program that uses reverse import java.lang.StringBuilder; public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { // A StringBuilder can be reversed. StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(); builder.append("abc"); builder.reverse(); System.out.println(builder); } } Output cba

Append performance. A StringBuilder is massively faster in repeated appends than a String. Append performance is the most important thing to know about StringBuilder.

Version 1: This version of the code adds 10,000 numbers (and spaces) to a string. We use the string concatenation operator.

Version 2: Here we perform many appends on a StringBuilder. The StringBuilder does not have a capacity set.

Result: The String adds require significant time (251 ms) while the StringBuilder appends require less than 1 ms.

Java program that times String, StringBuilder import java.lang.StringBuilder; public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { long t1 = System.currentTimeMillis(); // Version 1: add to string. String value = ""; for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++) { value += Integer.toString(i) + ' '; } long t2 = System.currentTimeMillis(); // Version 2: append to StringBuilder. StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(); for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++) { builder.append(i).append(' '); } long t3 = System.currentTimeMillis(); // ... Lengths are equal. System.out.println(value.length()); System.out.println(builder.length()); // ... Times. System.out.println(t2 - t1); System.out.println(t3 - t2); } } Output 48890 48890 251 ms, String + operator (20000 adds) 0 ms, StringBuilder append (20000 calls)

Capacity performance. Here we revisit capacity. How much does setting a capacity help if we know we will be adding as many as 1 million characters to our StringBuilder?

Version 1: In this test, the StringBuilder grows to a size of one million chars with no capacity set.

Version 2: The second StringBuilder meanwhile uses an exact capacity of 1,000,000. The two are benchmarked.

Result: The exact capacity makes the second StringBuilder nearly twice as fast to complete its meaningless task.

Java program that benchmarks capacity use import java.lang.StringBuilder; public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { long t1 = System.currentTimeMillis(); // Version 1: does not use capacity. StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(); for (int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++) { builder.append(' '); } long t2 = System.currentTimeMillis(); // Version 2: uses exact capacity. StringBuilder builder2 = new StringBuilder(1000000); for (int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++) { builder2.append(' '); } long t3 = System.currentTimeMillis(); // ... Times. System.out.println(t2 - t1); System.out.println(t3 - t2); } } Output 10 ms, no capacity 6 ms, exact capacity

Append String versus char. Here is another benchmark. It compares calling append() with a one-character String literal versus a char. The String argument is slower.

Version 1: This version of the code appends a one-character String literal in a tight loop, repeated many times.

Version 2: Here we do not append a string, but instead append a single character—a character literal.

Result: It is faster to use a char argument to append() than a String argument. I have found this helps many programs.

Java program that times String, char appends import java.lang.StringBuilder; public class Program { public static void main(String[] args) { long t1 = System.currentTimeMillis(); // Version 1: appends one-char strings. StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(); for (int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++) { builder.append("X"); } long t2 = System.currentTimeMillis(); // Version 2: appends chars directly. StringBuilder builder2 = new StringBuilder(); for (int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++) { builder2.append('X'); } long t3 = System.currentTimeMillis(); // ... Times. System.out.println(t2 - t1); System.out.println(t3 - t2); } } Output 15 ms, append() String argument 7 ms, append() char argument

ContentEquals. With this method we can compare a String to a StringBuilder. The character data is compared. We call contentEquals on a String instance.contentEquals

Char arrays. We can use a char array instead of a StringBuilder to create strings. In my benchmarks this is faster, but arrays cannot be resized so is less flexible.Char Arrays

StringBuffer. This is an older version of StringBuilder. The 2 classes are almost the same, except StringBuffer is thread-safe and somewhat slower.StringBuffer

A summary. StringBuilder helps in many program parts. But often its best uses are in loops—many iterations occur, and many append calls are invoked.

For simple situations, a String may be faster. And if another method requires a String argument, this is also likely. But for many appends in a loop, use StringBuilder.

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