COMP 102.

2x
Introduction to Java Programming – Part 2
Lecture 2

T.C. Pong
Department of Computer Science & Engineering
HKUST
COMP102x Part2: Lecture 2

• Character Strings
– String class
– String manipulation
• File Input / Output (I/O)
Your First Java Program
// a simple program
public class HelloWorld
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
System.out.println("Hello world!");
}
}
A character string
// "Hello work!" is a string literal.
// The following would produce the same effect
//
// String greeting = "Hello world!";
// System.out.println(greeting);
 comp102x.IO

import comp102x.IO;

// a simple program
public class HelloWorld
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
IO.outputln("Hello world!");
}
}
 String Manipulation
• String – a sequence of characters
• The class String includes methods for
– examining individual characters
– comparing strings
– searching strings
– extracting substrings
– converting strings to uppercase or lowercase
• Strings are immutable – once a string object
is created, it cannot be changed in place.
 Char - Character type
• A data type which is used to store exactly ONE
character
– char date type is a 16-bit Unicode character
– Note: A pair of single quote ‘ ’ is used
public class Students {

/* Instance variables */

private char gender = 'M'; // an example of character

}
 Char - Character type
• A compilation error occurs if we type more
than one character inside a pair of single
quotes ‘ ’
public class Students {

/* Instance variables */

// A compilation error occurs if more than one characters

// are assigned to a char variable
private char gender = 'Male';
}
 Char - Character type
• A compilation error occurs if we type more
than one character inside a pair of single
quotes ‘ ’
public class Students {

/* Instance variables */

// A compilation error occurs if more than one characters

// are assigned to a char variable
private
privatechar gender
String gender= 'Male';
= “Male”;
}
 Escape sequence
• Escape sequence is for special characters
– An extra backslash is added in front of the
special character
// Examples of escape sequence
char singleQuote = ‘\’’;
char doubleQuote = ‘\”’;
char tabChar = ‘\t’;
char nextLineChar = ‘\n’;
char backSlashChar = ‘\\’;

• IO.outputln(“She received an \"A\" in COMP1022P.");

would print out: She received an "A" in COMP1022P.
 String
• What happens if more than ONE character needs to be stored?
– Examples: Record the student’s name, student ID, etc.

• Solution #1: An array of characters

– Example:
• char[ ] studentName;
• char[ ] nameArray = {'M', 'a', 'r', 't', 'i', 'n' };
String nameString = new String(nameArray);

• Solution #2: String

– String is an abstract data type (ADT)
– Example:
• String studentName;
 String operations
• String is an Abstract Data Type (ADT)
• In this course, some of the methods that we will discuss
include:
– length()
• Determines the length of a string
– charAt(int index)
• Returns a character located at the given index
– substring(int i, int j)
• Returns substring with character from index i to j-1
– equals(String other)
• Compares the current string with another string
– String comparison
– String concatenation
– …
 String
• String stores a sequence of characters
– A string stores characters from index 0 to N-1,
where N is the length of the string
– Use a pair of double quotes “ ”
public class Students {
// An instance variable to store the name
private String studentName = “Martin";
}

Syntax:
String nameOfVariable = “String message”;
String – Reference Type
• In the previous example, studentName is a
reference variable to a string
• Consider the following example:
public class Students {
// The variable can be used to reference any string
private String studentName ;
public Students(String stdName) {
studentName = stdName;
}
}
 Length of a string
• A method length() is used to count the number of
characters in a string
• Example:
– String studentName = “Martin”;
– int size = studentName.length();
• The value of the variable size will be set to 6 because “Martin”
has exactly 6 characters.
 Accessing a character in a String
• Unlike Array, you don’t need the [ ] operator
• The charAt( int index ) method can be used to
access a character from a string
• Example:
– String studentName = “Martin”;
– char firstChar = studentName.charAt(0);

studentName: M a r t i n
0 1 2 3 4 5
 Getting a substring
• String substring(int i, int j)
– A substring includes characters starting from
index i to index j-1
• Example:
– String studentName = “Martin”;
– String subStr = studentName.substring(0, 3);

studentName M a r t i n M a r
0 1 2 3 4 5
subStr
 Getting a substring
• String substring(int i)
– A substring includes characters starting from index
i to the end of the original string
• Example:
– String studentName = “Martin”;
– String subStr = studentName.substring(3);

studentName M a r t i n t i n
0 1 2 3 4 5
subStr
 Getting a substring
• Strings are immutable
– substring doesn’t change the original string
• Example:
String studentName = “Martin”;
studentName.substring(3); // value of studentName remain as “Martin”
studentName = studentName.substring(3);

studentName M a r t i n t i n
0 1 2 3 4 5
 Equality of two strings
• Use equals() instead of “==“ to compare for
equality of two strings
– Example: “bcd” == “abcd”.substring(1)  false

“bcd”
• Syntax:
– boolean equals(String anotherStr)
– Example: “bcd”.equals(“abcd”.substring(1))  true
 Compare two strings
• The method int compareTo(String str) compares
two strings lexicographically
• Example: str1.compareTo(str2) returns
– integer > 0 if str1 > str2
– integer = 0 if str1 = str2
– integer < 0 if str1 < str2
String Comparison Examples
str1.compareTo(str2)
str1 str2 return value reason
“AAAA” “ABCD” <0 ‘A’ <‘B’
“aaaa” “AAAA” >0 ‘a’ > ‘A’
“127” “409” <0 ‘1’ < ‘4’
“abc12” “abc12” =0 equal string
“abc” “abcde” <0 str1 is a sub string of
str2
“3” “12345” >0 ‘3’ > ‘1’
 String concatenation
• String concatenation can be done by
– The addition operator (+)
Example:
String name = “TC Pong”;
IO.outputln(“My name is “ + name);
// will print: My name is TC Pong
– The method String concat(String str)
Example:
IO.outputln(“My name is ”.concat(name));
// will print: My name is TC Pong
Convert to Lower or Upper case
• The method String toLowerCase( ) converts all
characters in the string to lower case
• The method String toUpperCase( ) converts all
characters in the string to upper case
• Example:
– “AbCdE”.toLowerCase( ) returns “abcde”
– “AbCdE”.toUpperCase( ) returns “ABCDE”
 More String Methods

• http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/lang/String.html
 Reverse a string
inputStr: revStr:

Ma r t i n n i t r aM
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5

inputStr: revStr:

Hannah hannaH
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
 Reverse a string
inputStr:
Ma r t i n
public String reverseString(String inputStr) {
String revStr = ""; 0 1 2 3 4 5

for (int i=0; i < inputStr.length( ); i++) { i = 0 inputStr.charAt(0):

revStr = inputStr.charAt(i) + revStr;
}
M
+
return revStr;
} revStr:

M
 Reverse a string
inputStr:
Ma r t i n
public String reverseString(String inputStr) {
String revStr = ""; 0 1 2 3 4 5

for (int i=0; i < inputStr.length( ); i++) { i = 1 inputStr.charAt(1):

revStr = inputStr.charAt(i) + revStr;
}
a
+
return revStr;
} revStr:

M
aM
 Reverse a string
inputStr:
Ma r t i n
public String reverseString(String inputStr) {
String revStr = ""; 0 1 2 3 4 5

for (int i=0; i < inputStr.length( ); i++) { i = 2 inputStr.charAt(2):

revStr = inputStr.charAt(i) + revStr;
}
r
+
return revStr;
} revStr:

ar M
aM
 Reverse a string
inputStr:
Ma r t i n
public String reverseString(String inputStr) {
String revStr = ""; 0 1 2 3 4 5

for (int i=0; i < inputStr.length( ); i++) { i = 3 inputStr.charAt(3):

revStr = inputStr.charAt(i) + revStr;
}
t
+
return revStr;
} revStr:

rt ar M
aM
 Reverse a string
inputStr:
Ma r t i n
public String reverseString(String inputStr) {
String revStr = ""; 0 1 2 3 4 5

for (int i=0; i < inputStr.length( ); i++) { i = 4 inputStr.charAt(4):

revStr = inputStr.charAt(i) + revStr;
}
i
+
return revStr;
} revStr:

ti tr ar M
aM
 Reverse a string
inputStr:
Ma r t i n
public String reverseString(String inputStr) {
String revStr = ""; 0 1 2 3 4 5

for (int i=0; i < inputStr.length( ); i++) { i = 5 inputStr.charAt(5):

revStr = inputStr.charAt(i) + revStr;
}
n
+
return revStr;
} revStr:

ni ti rt ar M
aM
 Reverse a string
inputStr:
Ma r t i n
public String reverseString(String inputStr) {
String revStr = ""; 0 1 2 3 4 5

for (int i=0; i < inputStr.length( ); i++) { i = 6

revStr = inputStr.charAt(i) + revStr;
}

return revStr;
} revStr:

ni ti rt ar M
aM
 Example: Palindrome
• A palindrome is a word or sentence which
reads the same in both directions.
inputStr: revStr:

Hannah hannaH
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5

inputStr: revStr:

Ma d am ma d aM
0 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 4
 Palindrome

• Write a method isPalindrome which returns

true if the input parameter is a palindrome and
returns false otherwise.
public boolean isPalindrome(String str) {

// hint: use the method reverseString

}
File I/O
A sample text file
 File I/O
• Three steps of file I/O
1. open/create a file
2. read/write/do something with the file
3. close the file
• We are using File/PrintWriter/Scanner classes
for this course
– These are Java’s pre-defined classes, we need to
import the corresponding libraries
 Importing libraries
To make use of the pre-defined classes of File I/O
in Java, add these lines to the beginning of code:

// The first few lines…

import java.io.File;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.util.Scanner;

// The remaining parts…

 Exception handling
• Exception handling is necessary when performing file I/O
– E.g. an incorrect filename, error in opening a file
• Use try-catch block for exception handling
try {
// try block
} catch (ExceptionName e) {
// catch block
}

• To workaround with exception handling, you need to add “throws

IOException” next to the method header that reads/writes a file

public void doSomeFileIO() throws IOException {

// some File I/O code…
}
File Input: Using Scanner
• Steps to use a Scanner
1. Create a File object using a given filename
2. Create a Scanner object using the File object
3. Read data from file and process the data
4. Close the file by using close() method
• A Scanner breaks its input into tokens using a
delimiter pattern (whitespace by default).
• The resulting tokens may then be converted into
values of different types (including primitive types
and strings).
 Useful methods in Scanner class
• Read content from a file: • Check the availability of the
– nextLine() content from a file:
• Returns the next line of string – hasNextLine()
• Returns true if the next line
– next() exists
• Returns the next string (only the
first will be returned if the line – hasNext()
contains many words) • Returns true if the next string
exists
– nextInt(), nextDouble()
• Reads the next string and try to – hasNextInt(), hasNextDouble()
convert it to an integer (int) / a • Returns true if the next
floating point number (double) int/double exists

http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/Scanner.html
Example: Read the names of students
public void readStudentNamesFromFile() throws Exception {
// 1. Create a File and Scanner objects
File inputFile = new File(“studentnames.txt");
Scanner input = new Scanner(inputFile);
// 2. read the content using a loop
for (int i=0; input.hasNextLine(); i++) {
String inputStudentName = input.nextLine();
IO.outputln(“Student #” + i + “: “ + inputStudentName);
}
// 3. close the file and print the result
input.close();
}
Example: Input and output
File Output: Using PrintWriter
• Steps to use a PrintWriter
1. Create a File object by a given filename
2. Create a PrintWriter object using the File object
3. Output data to the file
• print( ) or println( )
4. Invoke close() method to close the file

44
Example: Output results to a file
public void readWriteStudentNames () throws IOException {
// 1.1 Create a File and Scanner objects
File inputFile = new File(“studentnames.txt");
Scanner input = new Scanner(inputFile);
// 1.1 Create a File and PrintWriter objects
File outputFile = new File("output.txt");
PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter(outputFile);
// 2. read and outputthe content using a loop
for (int i=0; input.hasNextLine(); i++) {
String inputStudentName = input.nextLine();
IO.outputln (“Student #” + i + “: “ + inputStudentName);
writer.println
}
// 3. close the file and print the result
input.close();
writer.close();
} 45
Example: Input and output files

46
 Input from OCR
Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
• Automatic conversion of printed or handwritten text into
machine readable text.
• Applications:
– Postal address from envolops
– Bank transactions
– Reading for the visually impaired
– Handwriting input, e.g. signature verification
– Vehicles license plate numbers
– others
47
Example: Read text from OCR
import comp102x.IO;

public class inputFromOCR

{
private static Loader loader = new Loader(); // for loading OCR libraries

public void readFromOCR() {

// Input from image by performing Optical Character Recognition(OCR)
String text = IO.inputTextImage();

IO.outputln(text);

}
}

48
Example: Read the names of students
public void readStudentNamesFromFile() throws IOException {
// 1. Create a File and Scanner objects
File inputFile = new File(“studentnames.txt");
Scanner input = new Scanner(inputFile);
// 2. read the content using a loop
for (int i=0; input.hasNextLine(); i++) {
String inputStudentName = input.nextLine();
IO.outputln(“Student #” + i + “: “ + inputStudentName);
}
// 3. close the file and print the result
input.close();
}
Example: Read names from Console
public void readStudentNamesFromFile() throws IOException {
// 1. Create a File and Scanner objects
File inputFile = new File(“studentnames.txt");
Scanner input = new Scanner(inputFile);
// 2. read the content using a loop
for (int i=0; input.hasNextLine(); i++) {
String inputStudentName = input.nextLine();
IO.outputln(“Student #” + i + “: “ + inputStudentName);
}
// 3. close the file and print the result
input.close();
}
Example: Read names from Console
public void readNamesFromConsole() throws IOException {
// 1. Create Scanner objects for standard input
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
int nStudents = 0;
// 2. read the content using a loop
while (true) {
String inputName = input.nextLine();
if (inputName.equals("")) break;
IO.outputln("Student #" + nStudents + ": " + inputName);
nStudents++;
}
}
Scanner breaks input into tokens
Example: Read names into an array
public class Student2DArray {
private static final int maxN = 40; // Assuming there are no more than 40 names
private String[ ][ ] studentNames = new String[maxN][2]; // For 1st and last names
private int nStudents = 0; // Number of students

public void readStudentNamesToArray() throws IOException {

// 1. Create a File and Scanner objects
File inputFile = new File(“studentnames.txt");
Scanner input = new Scanner(inputFile);
Scanner line; // A scanner object for each line of input
// 2. read the content and then store in an array using a loop
for (int i=0; input.hasNextLine(); i++) {
String inputStudentName = input.nextLine();
line = new Scanner(inputStudentName);
if (i >= maxN) break;
studentNames[i][0] = line.next();
studentNames[i][1] = line.next();
nStudents++;
}
// 3. close the file and print the result
input.close();
}
Scanner can break input into tokens
 Example: Read names into an array
public class StudentNameArray {
private static final int maxN = 40; // Assuming there are no more than 40 names
private String[ ][ ] studentNames = new String[maxN][2]; // For 1st and last names
private int nStudents = 0; // Number of students

public void readStudentNamesToArray() throws IOException {

// 1. Create a File and Scanner objects
File inputFile = new File(“studentnames.txt");
Scanner input = new Scanner(inputFile);
Scanner line; // A scanner object for each line of input
// 2. read the content and then store in an array using a loop
for (int i=0; input.hasNextLine(); i++) {
“Janet Meadow” String inputStudentName = input.nextLine();
line = new Scanner(inputStudentName);
if (i >= maxN) break;
studentNames[i][0] = line.next();
studentNames[i][1] = line.next();
nStudents++;
}
// 3. close the file and print the result
input.close();
}
Example: Output the Array to a File
public void outputNameArrayToFile( ) throws IOException {
// 1.1 Create a File and PrintWriter objects
File outputFile = new File("output2.txt");
PrintWriter writer = new PrintWriter(outputFile);
// 2. read the content and then store in an array using a loop
for (int i=0; i < nStudents; i++) {
// The last name is output before the first name
writer.println(studentNames[i][1] + ", " + studentNames[i][0]);
}
// 3. close the file and print the result
writer.close();
}
}