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Aren't Strings immutable...in which case.... (SCJP forum at JavaRanch)

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Aren't Strings immutable...in which case....

Wilson Mui Ranch Hand Joined: Apr 09, 2003 Posts: 140

...In which case, any line below that calls a method on the String object, must also return a value...because if it doesn't. It means (in most cases) that the method altered the object itself. And that is not possible. So Line 7 should throw an compile time error too right. Not so. Can somebody explain?
view plain c opy to c lipboard print ?

N ote: T ext c ontent in the c ode bloc ks is automatic ally word- wrapped

0 1 . 0 2 . 0 3 . 0 4 . 0 5 . 0 6 . 0 7 .

1 .S t r i n g B u f f e rs b=n e wS t r i n g B u f f e r ( " a b c " ) ; 2 .S t r i n gs=n e wS t r i n g ( " a b c " ) ; 3 .s b . a p p e n d ( " d e f " ) ; 4 .s . a p p e n d ( " d e f " ) ; 5 .s b . i n s e r t ( 1 ," z z z " ) ; 6 .s . c o n c a t ( s b ) ; 7 .s . t r i m ( ) ;

Which of the following statements are true: 1. The compiler would generate an error for line 1. 2. The compiler would generate an error for line 2.
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7/16/13

Aren't Strings immutable...in which case.... (SCJP forum at JavaRanch)

3. The compiler would generate 4. The compiler would generate 5. The compiler would generate 6. The compiler would generate 7. The compiler would generate The answer is 4,5 Can somebody explain?

an an an an an

error error error error error

for for for for for

line line line line line

3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Ryan Wilson Ranch Hand Joined: Apr 16, 2003 Posts: 64

posted 4/22/2003 6:20 AM

s.trim(); does return a String. It just does not assign it to anything. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong

Larry Jones Greenhorn Joined: Oct 22, 2002 Posts: 24

posted 4/22/2003 6:28 AM

view plain

c opy to c lipboard

print

N ote: T ext c ontent in the c ode bloc ks is automatic ally word- wrapped

0 1 . 0 2 . 0 3 . 0 4 . 0 5 . 0 6 . 0 7 . 0 8 . 0 9 . 1 0 .

S t r i n g B u f f e rs b=n e wS t r i n g B u f f e r ( " a b c " ) ; S t r i n gs=n e wS t r i n g ( " a b c " ) ; s b . a p p e n d ( " d e f " ) ; s . a p p e n d ( " d e f " ) ; / /C o m p i l eE r r o r :N oa p p e n d / / m e t h o di nt h eS t r i n gC l a s s s b . i n s e r t ( 1 ," z z z " ) ; s . c o n c a t ( s b ) ;/ /C o m p i l eE r r o r :S t r i n g ' sc o n c a t / / d o e s n ' tt a k eaS t r i n g B u f f e ro b j e c t s . t r i m ( ) ;

My compiler says the errors are at lines 4 and 6. (As oppossed to 4 and 5). There's a compiler error at line 4 because the String class doesn't have an append() method. And there's compiler error at line 6 because the concat() method doesn't take a StringBuffer object. But to get to what I think you were asking about: Those String methods, like trim() return newly constructed String objects. You can assign them to a reference: String myNewString = s.trim(); or not: s.trim(); If the String object is not assigned to a new reference, then it is lost, and the string in the s String object stays the same. StringBuffer methods DO change the value of their object, so there is no need to tie the new object to a reference, as there is with String objects.

pinky yadav Ranch Hand Joined: Jun 17, 2002 Posts: 44

posted 4/22/2003 5:20 PM

thats correct the error will be on line 4 and 6 not on line 5 Pinky
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7/16/13

Aren't Strings immutable...in which case.... (SCJP forum at JavaRanch)

Harry D'Souza Greenhorn Joined: Dec 28, 2002 Posts: 28

posted 4/22/2003 5:41 PM

As rightly pointed at already, the Compile errors are thrown from lines 4 and 6. The line 7 does not give a compile time error because the trim() method does ofcourse return a new String object but in the above given code this new String object is not assigned to any other String reference. Hence the code is syntactically correct but nevertheless the line 7 is of no use unless the String object returned from the trim() method is stored.

Harry D'Souza<br />SJC P 1.4 , SC WC D Roger ChungWee Ranch Hand Joined: Sep 29, 2002 Posts: 1683

posted 4/22/2003 6:10 PM

Note that trim only returns a new String object if there is something to trim! In this case, nothing can be trimmed, so the compiler simply returns a reference to the original String object. Let's add some code which proves this by using the == operator (which compares object references). String s2 = s.trim(); System.out.println(s2 == s); //returns true In contrast: String s = new String("abc "); String s2 = s.trim(); System.out.println(s2 == s); //returns false [ April 22, 2003: Message edited by: Roger Chung-Wee ]
SC JP 1.4, SC WC D 1.3, SC BC D 1.3

Wilson Mui Ranch Hand Joined: Apr 09, 2003 Posts: 140

posted 4/23/2003 12:38 AM

Yes, it was 4, 6, I made the syntactic mistake. Thansks for the help, things make sense now. I am guessing too then that, any method with a real return value can be either assigned or ignored, in which case, the return value is lost.

I agree. Here's the link: http://aspose.com/file-tools

subject: Aren't Strings immutable...in which case....

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7/16/13

Aren't Strings immutable...in which case.... (SCJP forum at JavaRanch)

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