IT1808

Strings
Strings
A string is a sequential collection of characters that is used to represent text. In C#, a string is an object of class string in the
System namespace.
In C#, a string variable can be initialized by using either of the following:
• directly assigning a string literal; or
• using the new keyword and calling the String class constructor.
The most commonly used method for creating a string object is by assigning a string literal to a string variable. The following
example use assignment operator to assign the string literal to a string variable:
string strMessage = "Welcome to this course!";
string strPath = @"C:\Documents\Report.docx";
In the given example, the backslash (\) is used to escape characters with special use, such as newline (\n). The '@' symbol before
the string literal is used to ignore the special use of backslashes.
Calling the String class constructor is the other method used to create a string object in C#. The following statements show
an example of how to use new keyword and String class constructor:
char[] word = { 'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o', '!' };
string strGreet = new string(word);
In the given example, the String class constructor is used to create a string from an array of characters named word. Note
that in C#, there is no String class constructor that takes a string literal as an argument. The String constructors in C# only
creates a string from characters and arrays.
The String class has two (2) properties that can be used to get some information of the string and can be used to manipulate
strings. The following are the properties of the String class:
• char – This property is used to get the character at a specified index position of a string. For example:
string word = "Computer";
char letter = word[2];
//the value of variable letter is character 'm'
• Length – This property is used to get the total number of characters in the string. For example:
string word = "Computer";
int total = word.Length;
//the value of variable total is 8
The String class provides several methods that are used to perform operations on strings. Table 1 shows some of the methods
of String class in C#.
Table 1. Methods in the class String (Harwani, 2015)
Method Description
This returns true if the specified substring occurs within the string object; otherwise, it returns false.
bool
Contains(string For example:
value) string sentence = "The quick brown fox jumps.";
bool isContain = sentence.Contains("fox"); //returns true
This determines whether the specified substring has the same value with the string object. The
comparisonType parameter specifies the rules to use in comparing strings, such as ignoring the case
bool version of the characters.
Equals(string Example 1:
value, string word = "Computer";
StringComparison bool isSame = word.Equals("computer", StringComparison.CurrentCulture); //this
comparisonType) returns false
Example 2:
string word = "Computer";

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Method Description
bool isSame = word.Equals("computer", StringComparison. CurrentCultureIgnoreCase);
//this returns true
This returns the index position value of the first occurrence of the specified character within the string
int IndexOf(char object if that character is found; otherwise, it returns -1 if not found. For example:
value) string word = "Computer";
int index = word.IndexOf('p'); //returns integer 3
string This returns a copy of the string object except that all of the occurrences of an old character are replaced
Replace(char with a new character. For example:
oldValue, char string word = "Color";
newValue) string strChanged = word.Replace('o', '#'); //returns a copy of string "C#l#r"
This returns a converted copy of object as a string. For example:
string
ToString() double value = 105.25;
string strValue = value.ToString(); //converted 105.25 into string
This returns a copy of the string object converted to lowercase. For example:
string ToLower() string word = "COMPUTER";
string strConverted = word.ToLower(); //returns a copy of string "computer"
This returns a copy of the string object converted to uppercase. For example:
string ToUpper() string word = "computer";
string strConverted = word.ToUpper(); //returns a copy of string "COMPUTER"
The String class methods only create a copy of the string object and return a new string containing the result of the method
operation.
Strings are immutable. This means that when a string object is created, its contents cannot be changed. Every instance of a
string that has been modified is actually creating a new string in the computer’s memory. For example:
string strComputer = "Computer";
strComputer = strComputer + " is a great invention.";

Figure 1. Memory allocation for String class

In Figure 1, the variable strComputer of String class will allocate a space in the memory with the string "Computer". When
the content of this variable is modified by concatenating the string "is a great invention.", the compiler will allocate
new memory space for the modified string instead of modifying the initial string at the same memory address. This behavior
will delay the performance of the application if the same string is modified multiple times.
To solve this problem, C# provides the StringBuilder class that represents a mutable string of characters.

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The StringBuilder Class
The StringBuilder class represents a mutable string of characters that allows the user to expand the number of characters in
the string object without allocating additional memory space.
The following shows the way of creating a string using the StringBuilder class and using the new keyword and
StringBuilder constructor:
StringBuilder strComputer = new StringBuilder("Computer");
The following syntax shows how to use Append() method to concatenate a string to the string object of StringBuilder
class. The example below will return the string ("Computer is a great invention.".
strComputer.Append(" is a great invention.");
Figure 2 shows how a StringBuilder class allocates a memory space when modifying a string object.

Figure 2. Memory allocation for StringBuilder class

In the figure, the content "Computer" of the variable strComputer of StringBuilder class is allocated to a memory space.
When the Append() method is used to modify the content of the string variable, the content "Computer is a great
invention." is allocated to the same memory address.
The StringBuilder class also contains two (2) main properties that can get and manipulate the information on a string. These
properties are char and Length. The following example shows how to use these properties:
StringBuilder word = new StringBuilder("Computer");
word[0] = '#'; //change the character at index 0 to '#'
for (int index = 0; index < word.Length; index++) {
Console.Write(word[index] + " + "); //gets the character at the specified index
}

Output:
# + o + m + p + u + t + e + r +

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The StringBuilder class contains useful methods that can be used to perform operations on the content of the
StringBuilder object. Table 2 lists some of the methods of StringBuilder class.
Table 2. Some methods in the class String (Harwani, 2015)
Method Description
This appends a copy of the specified substring to the StringBuilder object. For
Append(string value) example:
StringBuilder word = new StringBuilder("Computer");
word.Append(" Ethics"); //returns the string "Computer Ethics"
This returns true if the specified substring is equal to the StringBuilder object;
otherwise, it returns false. For example:
Equals(string value) StringBuilder wordA = new StringBuilder("computer");
StringBuilder wordB = new StringBuilder("computer");
wordA.Equals(wordB); //returns true because same content
This removes all characters from the current StringBuilder object. For example:
Clear() StringBuilder word = new StringBuilder("Computer");
word.Clear();
word.Append("Ethics"); //returns the string "Ethics" only
This replaces all occurrence of a specified old character of the StringBuilder object
Replace(char oldValue, char with a new character. For example:
newValue) StringBuilder word = new StringBuilder("Color");
word.Replace('o', '*'); //returns the string "C*l*r"
This converts the value of the StringBuilder object to a string. For example:
ToString() StringBuilder word = new StringBuilder("computer");
string strWord = word.ToString();

REFERENCES:
Deitel, P. and Deitel, H. (2015). Visual C# 2012 how to program (5th Ed.). USA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Gaddis, T. (2016). Starting out with visual C# (4th Ed.). USA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Harwani, B. (2015). Learning object-oriented programming in C# 5.0. USA: Cengage Learning PTR.
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