Strings

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 Objects and classes
Non-primitive data type @ reference type
object: An entity that contains:
 data (variables), and
 behavior (methods).

class: A program, or a type of objects.

Examples:
 The class String represents objects that store text.
 The class DrawingPanel represents graphical window objects.
 The class Scanner represents objects that read information
from the keyboard, files, and other sources.

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 Strings
string: An object storing a sequence of text characters.
 Unlike most other objects, a String is not created with new.

String name = "text";

String name = expression;

 Examples:

String name = "Marla Singer";

int x = 3;
int y = 5;
String point = "(" + x + ", " + y + ")";

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 Indexes
 Characters of a string are numbered with 0-based indexes:

String name = "P. Diddy";

index 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
char P . D i d d y

 The first character's index is always 0

 The last character's index is 1 less than the string's length

 The individual characters are values of type char (seen later)

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 String methods
Method name Description
indexOf(str) index where the start of the given string
appears in this string (-1 if it is not there)
length() number of characters in this string
substring(index1, the characters in this string from index1
index2) (inclusive) to index2 (exclusive);
or if index2 omitted, grabs till end of string
substring(index1)
toLowerCase() a new string with all lowercase letters
toUpperCase() a new string with all uppercase letters
These methods are called using the dot notation:
String gangsta = "Dr. Dre";
System.out.println(gangsta.length()); // 7

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 String method examples
// index 012345678901
String s1 = "Stuart Reges";
String s2 = "Marty Stepp";
System.out.println(s1.length()); // 12
System.out.println(s1.indexOf("e")); // 8
System.out.println(s1.substring(7, 10)) // "Reg"
String s3 = s2.substring(2, 8);
System.out.println(s3.toLowerCase()); // "rty st"

Given the following string:

// index 0123456789012345678901
String book = "Building Java Programs";
 How would you extract the word "Java" ?
 How would you extract the first word from any string?

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 Modifying strings
Methods like substring, toLowerCase, etc. create/return
a new string, rather than modifying the current string.
String s = "lil bow wow";
s.toUpperCase();
System.out.println(s); // lil bow wow

To modify a variable, you must reassign it:

String s = "lil bow wow";
s = s.toUpperCase();
System.out.println(s); // LIL BOW WOW

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 Strings as parameters
public class StringParameters {
public static void main(String[] args) {
sayHello("Marty");

String teacher = "Helene";

sayHello(teacher);
}
public static void sayHello(String name) {
System.out.println("Welcome, " + name);
}
}
Output:
Welcome, Marty
Welcome, Helene

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 Strings as user input
Scanner's next method reads a word of input as a String.
Scanner console = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.print("What is your name? ");
String name = console.next();
name = name.toUpperCase();
System.out.println(name + " has " + name.length() +
" letters and starts with " + name.substring(0, 1));

Output:
What is your name? Madonna
MADONNA has 7 letters and starts with M

The nextLine method reads a line of input as a String.

System.out.print("What is your address? ");
String address = console.nextLine();

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 Comparing strings
Relational operators such as < and == fail on objects.
Scanner console = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.print("What is your name? ");
String name = console.next();
if (name == "Barney") {
System.out.println("I love you, you love me,");
System.out.println("We're a happy family!");
}

 This code will compile, but it will not print the song.

 == compares objects by references (seen later), so it often

gives false even when two Strings have the same letters.

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 The equals method
Objects are compared using a method named equals.
Scanner console = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.print("What is your name? ");
String name = console.next();
if (name.equals("Barney")) {
System.out.println("I love you, you love me,");
System.out.println("We're a happy family!");
}

 Technically this is a method that returns a value of type boolean,

the type used in logical tests.

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 String test methods
Method Description
equals(str) whether two strings contain the same characters
equalsIgnoreCase(str) whether two strings contain the same characters,
ignoring upper vs. lower case
startsWith(str) whether one contains other's characters at start
endsWith(str) whether one contains other's characters at end
contains(str) whether the given string is found within this one

String name = console.next();

if (name.startsWith("Dr.")) {
System.out.println("Are you single?");
} else if (name.equalsIgnoreCase("LUMBERG")) {
System.out.println("I need your TPS reports.");
}
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 Strings question
Write a program that reads a person's name and converts it
into a "gangsta name."

Output (run 1):

Type your name, playa: Peter Griffin
(M)ale or (F)emale? m
Your gangsta name is "P. GRIFFIN Daddy Peter-izzle"

Output (run 2):

Type your name, playa: Marge Simpson
(M)ale or (F)emale? F
Your gangsta name is "M. SIMPSON Goddess Marge-izzle"

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 Strings answer
// This program prints your "gangsta" name.
import java.util.*;
public class GangstaName {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Scanner console = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.print("Type your name, playa: ");
String name = console.nextLine();
System.out.print("(M)ale or (F)emale: ");
String gender = console.next();
// split name into first/last name and initials
String first = name.substring(0, name.indexOf(" "));
String last = name.substring(name.indexOf(" ") + 1);
last = last.toUpperCase();
String fInitial = first.substring(0, 1);
String title;
if (gender.equalsIgnoreCase("m")) {
title = "Daddy";
} else {
title = "Goddess";
}
System.out.println("Your gangsta name is \"" + fInitial + ". "
+ last + " " + title + " " + first + "-izzle\"");
}
} 14
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 Java String split() method
The java string split() method splits this string against
given regular expression and returns a char array.

The string is split based on whitespace and put in array

named “words[]”

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 Type char
char : A primitive type representing single characters.
 Each character inside a String is stored as a char value.
 Literal char values are surrounded with apostrophe
(single-quote) marks, such as 'a' or '4' or '\n' or '\''

 It is legal to have variables, parameters, returns of type char

char letter = 'S';

System.out.println(letter); // S

char values can be concatenated with strings.

char initial = 'P';
System.out.println(initial + " Diddy"); // P Diddy

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 The charAt method
 The chars in a String can be accessed using the charAt
method.
String food = "cookie";
char firstLetter = food.charAt(0); // 'c'
System.out.println(firstLetter + " is for " + food);
System.out.println("That's good enough for me!");

 You can use a for loop to print or examine each character.

String major = "CSE";
for (int i = 0; i < major.length(); i++) {
char c = major.charAt(i);
System.out.println(c);
}
Output:
C
S
E 17
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 char vs. int
All char values are assigned numbers internally by the
computer, called ASCII values.

 Examples:
'A' is 65, 'B' is 66, ' ' is 32
'a' is 97, 'b' is 98, '*' is 42

 Mixing char and int causes automatic conversion to int.

'a' + 10 is 107, 'A' + 'A' is 130

 To convert an int into the equivalent char, type-cast it.

(char) ('a' + 2) is 'c'

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 char vs. String
 "h" is a String
'h' is a char (the two behave differently)

 String is an object; it contains methods

String s = "h";
s = s.toUpperCase(); // 'H'
int len = s.length(); // 1
char first = s.charAt(0); // 'H'

 char is primitive; you can't call methods on it

char c = 'h';
c = c.toUpperCase(); // ERROR: "cannot be dereferenced"

 What is s + 1 ? What is c + 1 ?
 What is s + s ? What is c + c ?
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 Comparing char values
You can compare char values with relational operators:
'a' < 'b' and 'X' == 'X' and 'Q' != 'q'

 An example that prints the alphabet:

for (char c = 'a'; c <= 'z'; c++) {

System.out.print(c);
}

You can test the value of a string's character:

String word = console.next();
if (word.charAt(word.length() - 1) == 's') {
System.out.println(word + " is plural.");
}

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 Java Regular Expressions
A regular expression is a sequence of characters that forms
a search pattern.
When you search for data in a text, you can use this search
pattern to describe what you are searching for.
Java does not have a built-in Regular Expression class, but
we can import the java.util.regex package to work with
regular expressions.
•Pattern Class - Defines a pattern (to be used in a search)
•Matcher Class - Used to search for the pattern
•PatternSyntaxException Class - Indicates syntax error in
a regular expression pattern

https://www.w3schools.com/java/java_regex.asp

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