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I am trying to convert String builder to String array in java.I have used to String method to convert the Stringbuilder to String and then use split method to convert it to String array.
I am facing some issue in array size. The output of String builder is as follows: 0,,1,,,,,,,,,,2,,,. Actually it contains 15 elements, but it's showing the size of stringbuilder as 18. And after converting to String array, it's showing size as 13.
Am I doing wrong method? Is there is other method to convert String builder to String Array?
StringBuilder output = new StringBuilder();
for (String str : listToSearch) {
int index = findIndex(headerArrayList, str);
if (index > -1) {
output.append(index);
} else {
output.append(str);
}
output.append(",");
}
String out = output.toString();
String[] destIndexArray = out.split(",");
The findIndex method:
private static int findIndex(List<String> headerList, String element) {
for (int i = 0; i < headerList.size(); i++) {
if (headerList.get(i).equals(element)) {
return i;
}
}
return -1;
}
Am I doing wrong method?
There are many places your code need improvements. I'm suggesting some:
Instead of re-inventing wheel, look for existing API: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/ArrayList.html#indexOf(java.lang.Object)
You can add only Strings instead of index.
for (String str :listToSearch) {
int index=headerArrayList.indexOf(str);
if (index < 0) {
output.append(str);
output.append(",");
}
// if(!headerArrayList.contains(str))
// output.append(str);
// output.append(",");
}
Use List<String> instead of StringBuilder.
Is there is other method to convert String builder to String Array?
Yes, but if you follow above points, you won't need it. but since you asked. See this: How can a StringBuilder best be converted to a String[]?
See using stringbuilder and again manipulating it and converting it into array is not a good idea. Instead insert everything into list of string, and to check if string is integer or not use this :
str.matches("^-?\\d+$");
And if you want to convert it into array you can do that
String[] str = list.toArray(new String[list.size()])
Have you simply tried in it with one line code:
stringBuilder.toString().split("delimiter"); ?
Which is in your case, might look like:
destIndexArray = output.toString().split(",");
If that doesnt work, then instead of converting into a StringBuilder, you can do this:
List<String> output = new List<String>();
for (String str : listToSearch) {
int index = findIndex(headerArrayList, str);
if (index > -1) {
output.add(index);
} else {
output.add(str);
}
}
I think in this case you can do whatever with your list, no need of delimiter. Hope it helps!
Assuming there are no restrictions in the characters that can be used in the individual Strings, and the Strings may be empty.
Edit:
Seems like the proper way to do this is to use a separator, and to escape occurances of that separator that already exist in any of the individual strings. Below is my attempt to this, which seems to work. Did miss any cases that will break it?:
public static void main(String args[])
{
Vector<String> strings = new Vector<String>();
strings.add("abab;jmma");
strings.add("defgh;,;");
strings.add("d;;efgh;,;");
strings.add("");
strings.add("");
strings.add(";;");
strings.add(";,;");
String string = combine(strings);
strings= separate(string);
System.out.println();
}
static String combine(Vector<String> strings)
{
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
for(String string : strings)
{
//don't prepend a SEPARATOR to the first string
if(!builder.toString().equals(""))
{
builder.append(";");
}
string = string.replaceAll(";", ",;");
builder.append(string);
}
return builder.toString();
}
static Vector<String> separate(String string)
{
Vector<String> strings = new Vector<String>();
separate(string, strings, 0);
return strings;
}
static void separate(String string, Vector<String> strings, int currIndex)
{
int nextIndex = -1;
int checkIndex = currIndex;
while(nextIndex == -1 && checkIndex < string.length())
{
nextIndex = string.indexOf(';', checkIndex);
//look back to determine if this occurance is escaped
if(string.charAt(nextIndex - 1) == ',')
{
//this ones is escaped, doesn't count
checkIndex = nextIndex + 1;
nextIndex = -1;
}
}
if(nextIndex == -1)
{
//no more remain
String toAdd = string.substring(currIndex, string.length());
toAdd = toAdd.replaceAll(",;", ";");
strings.add(toAdd);
return;
}
else if(currIndex + 1 == nextIndex)
{
//empty string
strings.add("");
separate(string, strings, nextIndex);
}
else
{
//there could be more
String toAdd = string.substring(currIndex, nextIndex);
toAdd = toAdd.replaceAll(",;", ";");
strings.add(toAdd);
separate(string, strings, nextIndex + 1);
}
}
}
Take your Vector of Strings and convert it to a JSON object and store the JSON object.
( http://www.json.org/ and http://www.json.org/java/ )
With your code, you can recover empty strings using the two-argument version of split:
String[] separate(String string)
{
return string.split(SEPARATOR, -1);
}
If you can truly make no assumptions about the string contents, the only way to do this properly is by escaping the separator sequence (which can then be a single character) wherever it occurs in the source string(s). Obviously, if you escape the separator sequence, you need to unescape the result after splitting. (The escape mechanism will likely require additional at least one additional escape/unescape.)
EDIT
Here's an example (XML-inspired) of escaping and unescaping. It assumes that the separator sequence is "\u0000" (a single NULL character).
/** Returns a String guaranteed to have no NULL character. */
String escape(String source) {
return source.replace("&", "&").replace("\u0000", "&null;");
}
/** Reverses the above escaping and returns the result. */
String unescape(String escaped) {
return source.replace("&null;", "\u0000").replace("&", "&");
}
Many other variations are possible. (It is important that the replacements when unescaping are in reverse order from those used for escaping.) Note that you can still use String.split() to separate the components.
You can build a class that stores the individual strings internally and then outputs a concatenated version of the strings when you call toString. Getting the original strings back is trivial as you already have them stored individually.
You can have the same comportement in two lines of code using Google Guava library (Splitter and Joiner classes).
public String combine(Collection<String> strings) {
return Joiner.on("yourUniqueSeparator").join(strings);
}
public Iterable<String> separate(String toSeparate) {
return Splitter.on("yourUniqueSeparator").split(toSeparate);
}
Take a look at opencsv if you want to use delimited text. The api is rather easy to use, and it takes care of dealing with escaping quotes and the like. However, it treats null values as empty strings, so you might get a,,c if your input was { "a", null, "c" }. If that's not acceptable, you could use a recognizable string and convert it back later.
char tokenSeparator = ',';
char quoteChar = '"';
String inputData[] = {"a","b","c"};
StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter();
CSVWriter csvWriter = new CSVWriter(stringWriter, tokenSeparator, quoteChar);
csvWriter.writeNext(inputData);
csvWriter.close();
StringReader stringReader = new StringReader(stringWriter.toString());
CSVReader csvReader = new CSVReader(stringReader, tokenSeparator, quoteChar);
String outputData[] = csvReader.readNext();
I have a few Set<String>s and want to transform each of these into a single String where each element of the original Set is separated by a whitespace " ".
A naive first approach is doing it like this
Set<String> set_1;
Set<String> set_2;
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
for (String str : set_1) {
builder.append(str).append(" ");
}
this.string_1 = builder.toString();
builder = new StringBuilder();
for (String str : set_2) {
builder.append(str).append(" ");
}
this.string_2 = builder.toString();
Can anyone think of a faster, prettier or more efficient way to do this?
With commons/lang you can do this using StringUtils.join:
String str_1 = StringUtils.join(set_1, " ");
You can't really beat that for brevity.
Update:
Re-reading this answer, I would prefer the other answer regarding Guava's Joiner now. In fact, these days I don't go near apache commons.
Another Update:
Java 8 introduced the method String.join()
String joined = String.join(",", set);
While this isn't as flexible as the Guava version, it's handy when you don't have the Guava library on your classpath.
If you are using Java 8, you can use the native
String.join(CharSequence delimiter, Iterable<? extends CharSequence> elements)
method:
Returns a new String composed of copies of the CharSequence elements joined together with a copy of the specified delimiter.
For example:
Set<String> strings = new LinkedHashSet<>();
strings.add("Java"); strings.add("is");
strings.add("very"); strings.add("cool");
String message = String.join("-", strings);
//message returned is: "Java-is-very-cool"
Set implements Iterable, so simply use:
String.join(" ", set_1);
As a counterpoint to Seanizer's commons-lang answer, if you're using Google's Guava Libraries (which I'd consider the 'successor' to commons-lang, in many ways), you'd use Joiner:
Joiner.on(" ").join(set_1);
with the advantage of a few helper methods to do things like:
Joiner.on(" ").skipNulls().join(set_1);
// If 2nd item was null, would produce "1, 3"
or
Joiner.on(" ").useForNull("<unknown>").join(set_1);
// If 2nd item was null, would produce "1, <unknown>, 3"
It also has support for appending direct to StringBuilders and Writers, and other such niceties.
Maybe a shorter solution:
public String test78 (Set<String> set) {
return set
.stream()
.collect(Collectors.joining(" "));
}
or
public String test77 (Set<String> set) {
return set
.stream()
.reduce("", (a,b)->(a + " " + b));
}
but native, definitely faster
public String test76 (Set<String> set) {
return String.join(" ", set);
}
I don't have the StringUtil library available (I have no choice over that) so using standard Java I came up with this ..
If you're confident that your set data won't include any commas or square brackets, you could use:
mySet.toString().replaceAll("\\[|\\]","").replaceAll(","," ");
A set of "a", "b", "c" converts via .toString() to string "[a,b,c]".
Then replace the extra punctuation as necesary.
Filth.
I use this method:
public static String join(Set<String> set, String sep) {
String result = null;
if(set != null) {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
Iterator<String> it = set.iterator();
if(it.hasNext()) {
sb.append(it.next());
}
while(it.hasNext()) {
sb.append(sep).append(it.next());
}
result = sb.toString();
}
return result;
}
I'm confused about the code replication, why not factor it into a function that takes one set and returns one string?
Other than that, I'm not sure that there is much that you can do, except maybe giving the stringbuilder a hint about the expected capacity (if you can calculate it based on set size and reasonable expectation of string length).
There are library functions for this as well, but I doubt they're significantly more efficient.
This can be done by creating a stream out of the set and then combine the elements using a reduce operation as shown below (for more details about Java 8 streams check here):
Optional<String> joinedString = set1.stream().reduce(new
BinaryOperator<String>() {
#Override
public String apply(String t, String u) {
return t + " " + u;
}
});
return joinedString.orElse("");
This question already has answers here:
Java function for arrays like PHP's join()?
(24 answers)
Closed 7 years ago.
See Related .NET question
I'm looking for a quick and easy way to do exactly the opposite of split
so that it will cause ["a","b","c"] to become "a,b,c"
Iterating through an array requires either adding a condition (if this is not the last element, add the seperator) or using substring to remove the last separator.
I'm sure there is a certified, efficient way to do it (Apache Commons?)
How do you prefer doing it in your projects?
Using Java 8 you can do this in a very clean way:
String.join(delimiter, elements);
This works in three ways:
1) directly specifying the elements
String joined1 = String.join(",", "a", "b", "c");
2) using arrays
String[] array = new String[] { "a", "b", "c" };
String joined2 = String.join(",", array);
3) using iterables
List<String> list = Arrays.asList(array);
String joined3 = String.join(",", list);
If you're on Android you can TextUtils.join(delimiter, tokens)
I prefer Guava over Apache StringUtils for this particular problem:
Joiner.on(separator).join(array)
Compared to StringUtils, the Joiner API has a fluent design and is a bit more flexible, e.g. null elements may be skipped or replaced by a placeholder. Also, Joiner has a feature for joining maps with a separator between key and value.
Apache Commons Lang does indeed have a StringUtils.join method which will connect String arrays together with a specified separator.
For example:
String[] s = new String[] {"a", "b", "c"};
String joined = StringUtils.join(s, ","); // "a,b,c"
However, I suspect that, as you mention, there must be some kind of conditional or substring processing in the actual implementation of the above mentioned method.
If I were to perform the String joining and didn't have any other reasons to use Commons Lang, I would probably roll my own to reduce the number of dependencies to external libraries.
A fast and simple solution without any 3rd party includes.
public static String strJoin(String[] aArr, String sSep) {
StringBuilder sbStr = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0, il = aArr.length; i < il; i++) {
if (i > 0)
sbStr.append(sSep);
sbStr.append(aArr[i]);
}
return sbStr.toString();
}
"I'm sure there is a certified, efficient way to do it (Apache Commons?)"
yes, apparenty it's
StringUtils.join(array, separator)
http://www.java2s.com/Code/JavaAPI/org.apache.commons.lang/StringUtilsjoinObjectarrayStringseparator.htm
With Java 1.8 there is a new StringJoiner class - so no need for Guava or Apache Commons:
String str = new StringJoiner(",").add("a").add("b").add("c").toString();
Or using a collection directly with the new stream api:
String str = Arrays.asList("a", "b", "c").stream().collect(Collectors.joining(","));
Even easier you can just use Arrays, so you will get a String with the values of the array separated by a ","
String concat = Arrays.toString(myArray);
so you will end up with this: concat = "[a,b,c]"
Update
You can then get rid of the brackets using a sub-string as suggested by Jeff
concat = concat.substring(1, concat.length() -1);
so you end up with concat = "a,b,c"
if you want to use Kotlin:
val concat = myArray.joinToString(separator = ",") //"a,b,c"
You can use replace and replaceAll with regular expressions.
String[] strings = {"a", "b", "c"};
String result = Arrays.asList(strings).toString().replaceAll("(^\\[|\\]$)", "").replace(", ", ",");
Because Arrays.asList().toString() produces: "[a, b, c]", we do a replaceAll to remove the first and last brackets and then (optionally) you can change the ", " sequence for "," (your new separator).
A stripped version (fewer chars):
String[] strings = {"a", "b", "c"};
String result = ("" + Arrays.asList(strings)).replaceAll("(^.|.$)", "").replace(", ", "," );
Regular expressions are very powerful, specially String methods "replaceFirst" and "replaceAll". Give them a try.
All of these other answers include runtime overhead... like using ArrayList.toString().replaceAll(...) which are very wasteful.
I will give you the optimal algorithm with zero overhead;
it doesn't look as pretty as the other options, but internally, this is what they are all doing (after piles of other hidden checks, multiple array allocation and other crud).
Since you already know you are dealing with strings, you can save a bunch of array allocations by performing everything manually. This isn't pretty, but if you trace the actual method calls made by the other implementations, you'll see it has the least runtime overhead possible.
public static String join(String separator, String ... values) {
if (values.length==0)return "";//need at least one element
//all string operations use a new array, so minimize all calls possible
char[] sep = separator.toCharArray();
// determine final size and normalize nulls
int totalSize = (values.length - 1) * sep.length;// separator size
for (int i = 0; i < values.length; i++) {
if (values[i] == null)
values[i] = "";
else
totalSize += values[i].length();
}
//exact size; no bounds checks or resizes
char[] joined = new char[totalSize];
int pos = 0;
//note, we are iterating all the elements except the last one
for (int i = 0, end = values.length-1; i < end; i++) {
System.arraycopy(values[i].toCharArray(), 0,
joined, pos, values[i].length());
pos += values[i].length();
System.arraycopy(sep, 0, joined, pos, sep.length);
pos += sep.length;
}
//now, add the last element;
//this is why we checked values.length == 0 off the hop
System.arraycopy(values[values.length-1].toCharArray(), 0,
joined, pos, values[values.length-1].length());
return new String(joined);
}
it's in StringUtils:
http://www.java2s.com/Code/JavaAPI/org.apache.commons.lang/StringUtilsjoinObjectarrayStringseparator.htm
This options is fast and clear:
public static String join(String separator, String... values) {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(128);
int end = 0;
for (String s : values) {
if (s != null) {
sb.append(s);
end = sb.length();
sb.append(separator);
}
}
return sb.substring(0, end);
}
This small function always comes in handy.
public static String join(String[] strings, int startIndex, String separator) {
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
for (int i=startIndex; i < strings.length; i++) {
if (i != startIndex) sb.append(separator);
sb.append(strings[i]);
}
return sb.toString();
}
The approach that I've taken has evolved since Java 1.0 to provide readability and maintain reasonable options for backward-compatibility with older Java versions, while also providing method signatures that are drop-in replacements for those from apache commons-lang. For performance reasons, I can see some possible objections to the use of Arrays.asList but I prefer helper methods that have sensible defaults without duplicating the one method that performs the actual work. This approach provides appropriate entry points to a reliable method that does not require array/list conversions prior to calling.
Possible variations for Java version compatibility include substituting StringBuffer (Java 1.0) for StringBuilder (Java 1.5), switching out the Java 1.5 iterator and removing the generic wildcard (Java 1.5) from the Collection (Java 1.2). If you want to take backward compatibility a step or two further, delete the methods that use Collection and move the logic into the array-based method.
public static String join(String[] values)
{
return join(values, ',');
}
public static String join(String[] values, char delimiter)
{
return join(Arrays.asList(values), String.valueOf(delimiter));
}
// To match Apache commons-lang: StringUtils.join(values, delimiter)
public static String join(String[] values, String delimiter)
{
return join(Arrays.asList(values), delimiter);
}
public static String join(Collection<?> values)
{
return join(values, ',');
}
public static String join(Collection<?> values, char delimiter)
{
return join(values, String.valueOf(delimiter));
}
public static String join(Collection<?> values, String delimiter)
{
if (values == null)
{
return new String();
}
StringBuffer strbuf = new StringBuffer();
boolean first = true;
for (Object value : values)
{
if (!first) { strbuf.append(delimiter); } else { first = false; }
strbuf.append(value.toString());
}
return strbuf.toString();
}
public String join(String[] str, String separator){
String retval = "";
for (String s: str){ retval+= separator + s;}
return retval.replaceFirst(separator, "");
}
This question already has answers here:
Java: convert List<String> to a join()d String
(23 answers)
Closed 6 years ago.
What is the best way to concatenate a list of String objects? I am thinking of doing this way:
List<String> sList = new ArrayList<String>();
// add elements
if (sList != null)
{
String listString = sList.toString();
listString = listString.subString(1, listString.length() - 1);
}
I somehow found this to be neater than using the StringBuilder/StringBuffer approach.
Any thoughts/comments?
Use one of the the StringUtils.join methods in Apache Commons Lang.
import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;
String result = StringUtils.join(list, ", ");
If you are fortunate enough to be using Java 8, then it's even easier...just use String.join
String result = String.join(", ", list);
Using Java 8+
String str = list.stream().collect(Collectors.joining())
or even
String str = String.join("", list);
Your approach is dependent on Java's ArrayList#toString() implementation.
While the implementation is documented in the Java API and very unlikely to change, there's a chance it could. It's far more reliable to implement this yourself (loops, StringBuilders, recursion whatever you like better).
Sure this approach may seem "neater" or more "too sweet" or "money" but it is, in my opinion, a worse approach.
A variation on codefin's answer
public static String concatStringsWSep(Iterable<String> strings, String separator) {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
String sep = "";
for(String s: strings) {
sb.append(sep).append(s);
sep = separator;
}
return sb.toString();
}
If you are developing for Android, there is TextUtils.join provided by the SDK.
This is the most elegant and clean way I've found so far:
list.stream().collect(Collectors.joining(delimiter));
Guava is a pretty neat library from Google:
Joiner joiner = Joiner.on(", ");
joiner.join(sList);
Have you seen this Coding Horror blog entry?
The Sad Tragedy of Micro-Optimization Theater
I am not shure whether or not it is "neater", but from a performance-standpoint it probably won't matter much.
I prefer String.join(list) in Java 8
It seems to me that the StringBuilder will be quick and efficient.
The basic form would look something like this:
public static String concatStrings(List<String> strings)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for(String s: strings)
{
sb.append(s);
}
return sb.toString();
}
If that's too simplistic (and it probably is), you can use a similar approach and add a separator like this:
public static String concatStringsWSep(List<String> strings, String separator)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for(int i = 0; i < strings.size(); i++)
{
sb.append(strings.get(i));
if(i < strings.size() - 1)
sb.append(separator);
}
return sb.toString();
}
I agree with the others who have responded to this question when they say that you should not rely on the toString() method of Java's ArrayList.
ArrayList inherits its toString()-method from AbstractCollection, ie:
public String toString() {
Iterator<E> i = iterator();
if (! i.hasNext())
return "[]";
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
sb.append('[');
for (;;) {
E e = i.next();
sb.append(e == this ? "(this Collection)" : e);
if (! i.hasNext())
return sb.append(']').toString();
sb.append(", ");
}
}
Building the string yourself will be far more efficient.
If you really want to aggregate the strings beforehand in some sort of List, you should provide your own method to efficiently join them, e.g. like this:
static String join(Collection<?> items, String sep) {
if(items.size() == 0)
return "";
String[] strings = new String[items.size()];
int length = sep.length() * (items.size() - 1);
int idx = 0;
for(Object item : items) {
String str = item.toString();
strings[idx++] = str;
length += str.length();
}
char[] chars = new char[length];
int pos = 0;
for(String str : strings) {
str.getChars(0, str.length(), chars, pos);
pos += str.length();
if(pos < length) {
sep.getChars(0, sep.length(), chars, pos);
pos += sep.length();
}
}
return new String(chars);
}
I somehow found this to be neater than
using the StringBuilder/StringBuffer
approach.
I guess it depends on what approach you took.
The AbstractCollection#toString() method simply iterates over all the elements and appends them to a StringBuilder. So your method may be saving a few lines of code but at the cost of extra String manipulation. Whether that tradeoff is a good one is up to you.
Rather than depending on ArrayList.toString() implementation, you could write a one-liner, if you are using java 8:
String result = sList.stream()
.reduce("", String::concat);
If you prefer using StringBuffer instead of String since String::concat has a runtime of O(n^2), you could convert every String to StringBuffer first.
StringBuffer result = sList.stream()
.map(StringBuffer::new)
.reduce(new StringBuffer(""), StringBuffer::append);
Next variation on Peter Lawrey's answer without initialization of a new string every loop turn
String concatList(List<String> sList, String separator)
{
Iterator<String> iter = sList.iterator();
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
while (iter.hasNext())
{
sb.append(iter.next()).append( iter.hasNext() ? separator : "");
}
return sb.toString();
}
Assuming it's faster to just move a pointer / set a byte to null (or however Java implements StringBuilder#setLength), rather than check a condition each time through the loop to see when to append the delimiter, you could use this method:
public static String Intersperse (Collection<?> collection, String delimiter)
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder ();
for (Object item : collection)
{
if (item == null) continue;
sb.append (item).append (delimiter);
}
sb.setLength (sb.length () - delimiter.length ());
return sb.toString ();
}
In java 8 you can also use a reducer, something like:
public static String join(List<String> strings, String joinStr) {
return strings.stream().reduce("", (prev, cur) -> prev += (cur + joinStr));
}
Depending on the need for performance and amount of elements to be added, this might be an ok solution. If the amount of elements are high, the Arraylists reallocation of memory might be a bit slower than StringBuilder.
Using the Functional Java library, import these:
import static fj.pre.Monoid.stringMonoid;
import static fj.data.List.list;
import fj.data.List;
... then you can do this:
List<String> ss = list("foo", "bar", "baz");
String s = stringMonoid.join(ss, ", ");
Or, the generic way, if you don't have a list of Strings:
public static <A> String showList(List<A> l, Show<A> s) {
return stringMonoid.join(l.map(s.showS_()), ", ");
}
if you have json in your dependencies.you can use new JSONArray(list).toString()