Mastering Java Strings and Text Processing

1. Chapter 9 Strings and Text I/O

2. Objectives • To use the String class to process fixed strings (§9.2). • To use the Character class to process a single character (§9.3). • To use the StringBuilder/StringBuffer class to process flexible strings (§9.4). • To distinguish among the String, StringBuilder, and StringBuffer classes (§9.2-9.4). • To learn how to pass arguments to the main method from the command line (§9.5). • To discover file properties and to delete and rename files using the File class (§9.6). • To write data to a file using the PrintWriter class (§9.7.1). • To read data from a file using the Scanner class (§9.7.2). • (GUI) To open files using a dialog box (§9.8).

3. Motivations Often you encounter the problems that involve string processing and file input and output. Suppose you need to write a program to replace all occurrences of a word with a new word in a file. How do you solve this problem? This chapter introduces stringsand text files, which will enable you to solve this problem. • A stringis a sequence of characters. • Stringsare treated as an array of characters, but in Java string is an object. • The String class has 11 constructors and more than 40 methods for manipulating strings.

4. The String Class • Constructing a String: • String message = "Welcome to Java“; • String message = new String("Welcome to Java“); • String s = new String(); • Obtaining String length and Retrieving Individual Characters in a string • String Concatenation (concat) • Substrings (substring(index), substring(start, end)) • Comparisons (equals, compareTo) • String Conversions • Finding a Character or a Substring in a String • Conversions between Strings and Arrays • Converting Characters and Numeric Values to Strings

5. Constructing Strings String newString = new String(stringLiteral); String message = new String("Welcome to Java"); Since strings are used frequently, Java provides a shorthand initializer for creating a string: String message = "Welcome to Java"; Here are some more examples of how strings can be used: System.out.println("abc"); String cde = "cde"; System.out.println("abc" + cde); String c = "abc".substring(2,3); String d = cde.substring(1, 2);

6. Strings Are Immutable A String object is immutable; its contents cannot be changed. Does the following code change the contents of the string? The answer is no. String s = "Java"; /*creates a String object with content “Java” and assigns its reference to s. */ s = "HTML"; // create a new String object with content “HTML” and assigns to s.

7. animation Trace Code After executing String s= “Java”; Content cannot be changed After executing s = “HTML” String are immutable; once created, their contents cannot be changed. String s = "Java"; s = "HTML";

8. Interned Strings Take a look a the String deeper. Since strings are immutable and are frequently used, to improve efficiency and save memory, the JVM uses a unique instance for string literals with the same character sequence. Such an instance is called interned. For example, the following statements: String s1 = “Welcome to Java”; String s2 = new String (“Welcome to Java”); String s3 = “Welcome to Java”;

9. Examples display s1 == s2 is false s1 == s3 is true A new object is created if you use the new operator. If you use the string initializer, no new object is created if the interned object is already created.

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13. String Comparisons

14. String Comparisons • Statements display true and false. String s1 = new String("Welcome“); String s2 = "welcome"; String s3 =“Welcome to C++”; system.out.println(s1.equals(s2)); //true system.out.println(s1.equals(s3)); //false if (s1.equals(s2)){ // s1 and s2 have the same contents } if (s1 == s2) { /* Check to see if only s1 and s2 are equal and refer to the same object. s1 and s2 have the same reference*/ }

15. String Comparisons, cont. • compareTo(Object object) String s1 = new String("Welcome“); String s2 = "welcome"; if (s1.compareTo(s2) > 0) { //compareTo method can also be used to compare two strings // s1 is greater than s2 } else if (s1.compareTo(s2) == 0) { //== compare // s1 and s2 have the same contents } else // s1 is less than s2

16. String Length, Characters, and Combining Strings The String class provides the methods for obtaining length, retrieving individual characters, and concate strings as shown below: You can get the length of a string by invoking its length() method. Example: message.length() //returns the length of the string message.

17. Retrieving Individual Characters in a String • Do not use message[0] • Use message.charAt(index) • Index starts from 0

18. String Concatenation We can use the concate method to concatenate two strings. The below example, cancate strings s1, s2, into s3. String s3 = s1.concat(s2); Also plus (+) sing works to concate two or more strings. String s3 = s1 + s2; s1 + s2 + s3 + s4 + s5 same as (((s1.concat(s2)).concat(s3)).concat(s4)).concat(s5);

19. Extracting Substrings You can extract a single character from a string using the charAtmethod. You can also extract a substring from a string using the substring method in the String class. String s1 = "Welcome to Java"; String s2 = s1.substring(0, 11) + "HTML";

20. Converting, Replacing, and Splitting Strings The String class provides the methods for converting, replacing, and splitting string, as show below

21. Examples "Welcome".toLowerCase() returns a new string, welcome. "Welcome".toUpperCase()returns a new string, WELCOME. " Welcome ".trim()returns a new string, Welcome. "Welcome".replace('e', 'A') returns a new string, WAlcomA. "Welcome".replaceFirst("e", "AB") returns a new string, WABlcome. "Welcome".replace("e", "AB") returns a new string, WABlcomAB. "Welcome".replace("el", "AB") returns a new string, WABcome.

22. Splitting a String The split method can be sued to extract tokens from a string with specified a character that identified within the string beginning or end. String[] tokens = "Java#HTML#Perl".split("#", 0); for (int i = 0; i < tokens.length; i++) System.out.print(tokens[i] + " "); displays Java HTML Perl

23. Matching, Replacing and Splitting by Patterns You can match, replace, or split a string by specifying a pattern. This is an extremely useful and powerful feature, commonly known as regular expression. Regular expression is complex to beginning students. For this reason, two simple patterns are used in this section. Please refer to Supplement III.F, “Regular Expressions,” for further studies. "Java".matches("Java"); "Java".equals("Java"); "Java is fun".matches("Java.*"); "Java is cool".matches("Java.*");

24. Matching, Replacing and Splitting by Patterns ThereplaceAll, replaceFirst, and split methods can be used with a regular expression. For example, the following statement returns a new string that replaces $, +, or#in "a+b$#c"by the string NNN. String s = "a+b$#c".replaceAll("[$+#]", "NNN"); System.out.println(s); Here the regular expression [$+#] specifies a pattern that matches $, +, or #. So, the output is aNNNbNNNNNNc.

25. Matching, Replacing and Splitting by Patterns The following statement splits the string into an array of strings delimited by some punctuation marks. String[] tokens = "Java,C?C#,C++".split("[.,:;?]"); for (int i = 0; i < tokens.length; i++) System.out.println(tokens[i]);

26. Finding a Character or a Substring in a String

27. Finding a Character or a Substring in a String "Welcome to Java".indexOf('W')returns 0. "Welcome to Java".indexOf('x')returns -1. "Welcome to Java".indexOf('o', 5)returns 9. "Welcome to Java".indexOf("come")returns 3. "Welcome to Java".indexOf("Java", 5)returns 11. "Welcome to Java".indexOf("java", 5)returns -1. "Welcome to Java".lastIndexOf('a')returns 14.

28. Convert Character and Numbers to Strings String are not arrays, but a string can be converted into an array and vice versa. To convert a string to an array of characters, use the toCharArray method. Convert string “Java” to an array; char[] chars = “Java”.toCharArray(); So, char[0] is ‘J’, char[1] is ‘a’, char[2] ‘v’, char[3] ‘a’. You can also getChars (int srcBegin, int srcEnd)

29. The Character Class Java provides a wrapper class for every primitive type such as Character, Boolean, Byte, Short, Integer, Long, Float, , and more.

30. Case Study: Checking Palindromes This program presents whether a string is a palindrom A palindrome is a word or sentence that reads the same forward as it does backward. The words a and I are perhaps the simplest and least interesting palindromes; the word racecar and the name Hannah are more interesting and illustrative. Neither spaces nor punctuation are usually taken into consideration when constructing sentences that are palindromes -- one of the most famous palindromes is "A man, a plan, a canal, Panama" -- but when the spaces are properly positioned as well, so much the better. An example would be the also famous palindrome "Able was I ere I saw Elba," purportedly spoken by Napoleon, referring to his first sighting of Elba, the island where the British exiled him. Video- Checking Palindromes 

31. Command-Line ArgumentCase Study: Calculator program The program takes an expression in one argument (operad1 operator operand2) from the command line and displays the expression and the result of the arithmetic operation. Video – Calculator program

32. Examples You can create a character object from a char value Character character = new Character (‘a’); Character charObject = new Character('b'); charObject.compareTo(new Character('a')) returns 1 charObject.compareTo(new Character('b')) returns 0 charObject.compareTo(new Character('c')) returns -1 charObject.compareTo(new Character('d') returns –2 charObject.equals(new Character('b')) returns true charObject.equals(new Character('d')) returns false

33. Problem: Counting Each Letter in a String import java.util.Scanner;public class CountEachLetter { /** Main method */ public static void main(String[] args) {// Create a Scanner Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);// Prompt the user to enter a string System.out.print("Enter a string: "); String s = input.nextLine();// Invoke the countLetters method to count each letter int[] counts = countLetters(s.toLowerCase()); // Display results for (int i = 0; i < counts.length; i++) { if (counts[i] != 0) System.out.println((char)('a' + i) + " appears " + counts[i] + ((counts[i] == 1) ? " time" : " times")); } }/** Count each letter in the string */ public static int[] countLetters(String s) { int[] counts = new int[26]; for (int i = 0; i < s.length(); i++) { if (Character.isLetter(s.charAt(i))) counts[s.charAt(i) - 'a']++; } return counts; }} This example gives a program that counts the number of occurrence of each letter in a string. Assume the letters are not case-sensitive. Run Enter a string: Sarah Northa appears 2 timesh appears 2 timesn appears 1 timeo appears 1 timer appears 2 timess appears 1 timet appears 1 time CountEachLetter

34. StringBuilder and StringBuffer • The StringBuilder/StringBuffer class is an alternative to the String class. • In general, a StringBuilder/StringBuffer can be used wherever a string is used. • StringBuilder/StringBuffer is more flexible than String. You can add, insert, or append new contents into a string buffer, whereas the value of a String object is fixed once the string is created.

35. String Builder and String Buffer • The most important difference between String and StringBuffer/StringBuilder in java is that • String object is immutable whereas • StringBuffer/StringBuilder objects are mutable. By immutable, we mean that the value stored in the String object cannot be changed.

36. Internally a new String object is created to do the changes. So suppose you declare a String object: String myString = “Hello”; Next, you want to append “Guest” to the same String. What you can do is the following: myString = myString + ” Guest”; When you print the contents of myString the output will be “Hello Guest”. Although we made use of the same object(myString), internally a new object was created in the process.

37. Modifying Strings in the Builder

38. Using append • since StringBuffer/StringBuilder objects are mutable, we can make changes to the value stored in the object. • What this effectively means is that string operations such as append would be more efficient if performed using StringBuffer/StringBuilder objects than String objects.

39. Examples stringBuilder.append("Java"); stringBuilder.insert(11, "HTML and "); stringBuilder.delete(8, 11) changes the builder to Welcome Java. stringBuilder.deleteCharAt(8) changes the builder to Welcome o Java. stringBuilder.reverse() changes the builder to avaJ ot emocleW. stringBuilder.replace(11, 15, "HTML") changes the builder to Welcome to HTML. stringBuilder.setCharAt(0, 'w') sets the builder to welcome to Java.

40. The toString, capacity, length, setLength, and charAt Methods

41. Problem: Checking Palindromes Ignoring Non-alphanumeric Characters This example gives a program that counts the number of occurrence of each letter in a string. Assume the letters are not case-sensitive. Run PalindromeIgnoreNonAlphanumeric

42. Main Method Is Just a Regular Method You can call a regular method by passing actual parameters. Can you pass arguments to main? Of course, yes. For example, the main method in class B is invoked by a method in A, as shown below:

43. Problem: Calculator • Objective: Write a program that will perform binary operations on integers. The program receives three parameters: an operator and two integers. java Calculator 2 + 3 Calculator java Calculator 2 - 3 java Calculator 2 / 3 Run java Calculator 2 “*” 3

44. Java - parseInt() Method Description: This method is used to get the primitive data type of a certain String. parseXxx() is a static method and can have one argument or two. Syntax: All the variant of this method are given below: static int parseInt(String s) static int parseInt(String s, int radix) Parameters: Here is the detail of parameters: String s : This is a string representation of decimal. int radix : This would be used to convert String s into integer.

45. Return Value : • parseInt(String s): This returns an integer (decimal only). • parseInt(inti): This returns an integer, given a string representation of decimal, binary, octal, or hexadecimal (radix equals 10, 2, 8, or 16 respectively) numbers as input. • Example: • public class Test{ • public static void main(String args[]){ • int x = Integer.parseInt("9"); • double c = Double.parseDouble("5"); • int b = Integer.parseInt("444",16); • System.out.println(x); • System.out.println(c); • System.out.println(b); • } • } • Result • 9 • 5.0 • 1092

46. Companion Website Regular Expressions A regular expression (abbreviated regex) is a string that describes a pattern for matching a set of strings. Regular expression is a powerful tool for string manipulations. You can use regular expressions for matching, replacing, and splitting strings.

47. Companion Website Matching Strings "Java".matches("Java"); "Java".equals("Java"); "Java is fun".matches("Java.*") "Java is cool".matches("Java.*") "Java is powerful".matches("Java.*")

48. Companion Website Regular Expression Syntax

49. Companion Website Replacing and Splitting Strings

50. Companion Website Examples String s = "Java Java Java".replaceAll("v\\w", "wi") ; String s = "Java Java Java".replaceFirst("v\\w", "wi") ; String[] s = "Java1HTML2Perl".split("\\d");