Chapter 9 Strings and Text I/O

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 Constructing Strings
String newString = new String(stringLiteral);

String message = new String("Welcome to Java");

Since strings are used frequently, Java provides a

shorthand initializer for creating a string:

String message = "Welcome to Java";

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 String Comparisons
 equals

String s1 = new String("Welcome“);

String s2 = "welcome";

if (s1.equals(s2)){
// s1 and s2 have the same contents
}

if (s1 == s2) {
// s1 and s2 have the same reference
}
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 String Comparisons, cont.
 compareTo()

String s1 = new String("Welcome“);

String s2 = "welcome";

if (s1.compareTo(s2) > 0) {
// s1 is greater than s2
}
else if (s1.compareTo(s2) == 0) {
// s1 and s2 have the same contents
}
else
// s1 is less than s2
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 Finding String Length
Finding string length using the length()
method:

message = "Welcome";
message.length()

returns 7

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 Retrieving Individual Characters
in a String
 Do not use message[0]
 Use message.charAt(index)
 Index starts from 0

Indices 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

message W e l c o m e t o J a v a

message.charAt(0) message.length() is 15 message.charAt(14)

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 String Concatenation
String s3 = s1.concat(s2);

String s3 = s1 + s2;

s1 + s2 + s3 + s4 + s5 same as
(((s1.concat(s2)).concat(s3)).concat(s4)).concat(s5);

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 Extracting Substrings
You can extract a single character from a string using the
charAt method. You can also extract a substring from a
string using the substring method in the String class.

String s1 = "Welcome to Java";

String s2 = s1.substring(0, 11) + "HTML";

Indices 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

message W e l c o m e t o J a v a

message.substring(0, 11) message.substring(11)

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 Converting, Replacing, and Splitting
Strings
java.lang.String
+toLowerCase(): String Returns a new string with all characters converted to lowercase.
+toUpperCase(): String Returns a new string with all characters converted to uppercase.
+trim(): String Returns a new string with blank characters trimmed on both sides.
+replace(oldChar: char, Returns a new string that replaces all matching character in this
newChar: char): String string with the new character.
+replaceFirst(oldString: String, Returns a new string that replaces the first matching substring in
newString: String): String this string with the new substring.
+replaceAll(oldString: String, Returns a new string that replace all matching substrings in this
newString: String): String string with the new substring.
+split(delimiter: String): Returns an array of strings consisting of the substrings split by the
String[] delimiter.

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 Examples
"Welcome".toLowerCase() returns a new string, welcome.
"Welcome".toUpperCase() returns a new string,
WELCOME.
" Welcome ".trim() returns a new string, Welcome.
"Welcome".replace('e', 'A') returns a new string, WAlcomA.
"Welcome".replaceFirst("e", "AB") returns a new string,
WABlcome.
"Welcome".replace("e", "AB") returns a new string,
WABlcomAB.
"Welcome".replace("el", "AB") returns a new string,
WABlcome.
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 Splitting a String
String[] tokens = "Java#HTML#Perl".split("#", 0);
for (int i = 0; i < tokens.length; i++)
System.out.print(tokens[i] + " ");

displays
Java HTML Perl

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 Finding a Character or a Substring
in a String
java.lang.String
+indexOf(ch: char): int Returns the index of the first occurrence of ch in the string.
Returns -1 if not matched.
+indexOf(ch: char, fromIndex: Returns the index of the first occurrence of ch after fromIndex in
int): int the string. Returns -1 if not matched.
+indexOf(s: String): int Returns the index of the first occurrence of string s in this string.
Returns -1 if not matched.
+indexOf(s: String, fromIndex: Returns the index of the first occurrence of string s in this string
int): int after fromIndex. Returns -1 if not matched.
+lastIndexOf(ch: int): int Returns the index of the last occurrence of ch in the string.
Returns -1 if not matched.
+lastIndexOf(ch: int, Returns the index of the last occurrence of ch before fromIndex
fromIndex: int): int in this string. Returns -1 if not matched.
+lastIndexOf(s: String): int Returns the index of the last occurrence of string s. Returns -1 if
not matched.
+lastIndexOf(s: String, Returns the index of the last occurrence of string s before
fromIndex: int): int fromIndex. Returns -1 if not matched.

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 Finding a Character or a
Substring in a String
"Welcome to Java".indexOf('W') returns 0.
"Welcome to Java".indexOf('x') returns -1.
"Welcome to Java".indexOf('o', 5) returns 9.
"Welcome to Java".indexOf("come") returns 3.
"Welcome to Java".indexOf("Java", 5) returns 11.
"Welcome to Java".indexOf("java", 5) returns -1.
"Welcome to Java".lastIndexOf('a') returns 14.

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 Convert Character and Numbers
to Strings
The String class provides several static valueOf
methods for converting a character, an array of
characters, and numeric values to strings. These
methods have the same name valueOf with
different argument types char, char[], double, long,
int, and float. For example, to convert a double
value to a string, use String.valueOf(5.44). The
return value is string consists of characters ‘5’, ‘.’,
‘4’, and ‘4’.
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 Problem: Finding Palindromes

 Objective: Checking whether a string

is a palindrome: a string that reads the
same forward and backward.

CheckPalindrome Run

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 The Character Class
java.lang.Character

+Character(value: char) Constructs a character object with char value

+charValue(): char Returns the char value from this object
+equals(anotherCharacter: Character): boolean Returns true if this character equals to another
+isDigit(ch: char): boolean Returns true if the specified character is a digit
+isLetter(ch: char): boolean Returns true if the specified character is a letter
+isLetterOrDigit(ch: char): boolean Returns true if the character is a letter or a digit
+isLowerCase(ch: char): boolean Returns true if the character is a lowercase letter
+isUpperCase(ch: char): boolean Returns true if the character is an uppercase letter
+toLowerCase(ch: char): char Returns the lowercase of the specified character
+toUpperCase(ch: char): char Returns the uppercase of the specified character

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 Examples
Character x = new Character('b');
System.out.println(Character.isDigit(x));
//returns false

char x = 'b';
System.out.println(Character.isDigit(x));
//returns false

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StringBuilder and StringBuffer
The StringBuilder/StringBuffer class is
an alternative to the String class. In general, a
StringBuilder/StringBuffer can be used wherever
a string is used. StringBuilder/StringBuffer is
more flexible than String. You can add, insert, or
append new contents into a string buffer, whereas
the value of a String object is fixed once the string
is created.

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 Modifying Strings in the Builder
java.lang.StringBuilder

+append(data: char[]): StringBuilder Appends a char array into this string builder.
+append(data: char[], offset: int, len: int): Appends a subarray in data into this string builder.
StringBuilder
+append(v: aPrimitiveType): StringBuilder Appends a primitive type value as a string to this
builder.
+append(s: String): StringBuilder Appends a string to this string builder.
+delete(startIndex: int, endIndex: int): Deletes characters from startIndex to endIndex.
StringBuilder
+deleteCharAt(index: int): StringBuilder Deletes a character at the specified index.
+insert(index: int, data: char[], offset: int, Inserts a subarray of the data in the array to the builder
len: int): StringBuilder at the specified index.
+insert(offset: int, data: char[]): Inserts data into this builder at the position offset.
StringBuilder
+insert(offset: int, b: aPrimitiveType): Inserts a value converted to a string into this builder.
StringBuilder
+insert(offset: int, s: String): StringBuilder Inserts a string into this builder at the position offset.
+replace(startIndex: int, endIndex: int, s: Replaces the characters in this builder from startIndex
String): StringBuilder to endIndex with the specified string.
+reverse(): StringBuilder Reverses the characters in the builder.
+setCharAt(index: int, ch: char): void Sets a new character at the specified index in this
builder.

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 Examples
StringBuilder sb=new StringBuilder("Hello ");
sb.append("Java");
System.out.println(sb);
sb.insert(4, "Sam"); Hello Java
System.out.println(sb); HellSamo Java
sb.delete(1,5);
Hamo Java
System.out.println(sb);
sb.deleteCharAt(5); Hamo ava
System.out.println(sb); Hello ava
sb.replace(1,4,"ello"); Hella ava
System.out.println(sb); ava alleH
sb.setCharAt(4, 'a');
System.out.println(sb);
sb.reverse();
System.out.println(sb);

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 The File Class
The File class is intended to provide an abstraction that
deals with most of the machine-dependent complexities
of files and path names in a machine-independent
fashion. The filename is a string. The File class is a
wrapper class for the file name and its directory path.

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 java.io.File
Obtaining file
+File(pathname: String) Creates a File object for the specified pathname. The pathname may be a
properties and directory or a file.

manipulating +File(parent: String, child: String) Creates a File object for the child under the directory parent. child may be a
filename or a subdirectory.
file +File(parent: File, child: String) Creates a File object for the child under the directory parent. parent is a File
object. In the preceding constructor, the parent is a string.
+exists(): boolean Returns true if the file or the directory represented by the File object exists.
+canRead(): boolean Returns true if the file represented by the File object exists and can be read.
+canWrite(): boolean Returns true if the file represented by the File object exists and can be written.
+isDirectory(): boolean Returns true if the File object represents a directory.
+isFile(): boolean Returns true if the File object represents a file.
+isAbsolute(): boolean Returns true if the File object is created using an absolute path name.
+isHidden(): boolean Returns true if the file represented in the File object is hidden. The exact
definition of hidden is system-dependent. On Windows, you can mark a file
hidden in the File Properties dialog box. On Unix systems, a file is hidden if
its name begins with a period character '.'.
+getAbsolutePath(): String Returns the complete absolute file or directory name represented by the File
object.
+getCanonicalPath(): String Returns the same as getAbsolutePath() except that it removes redundant
names, such as "." and "..", from the pathname, resolves symbolic links (on
Unix platforms), and converts drive letters to standard uppercase (on Win32
platforms).
+getName(): String Returns the last name of the complete directory and file name represented by
the File object. For example, new File("c:\\book\\test.dat").getName() returns
test.dat.
+getPath(): String Returns the complete directory and file name represented by the File object.
For example, new File("c:\\book\\test.dat").getPath() returns c:\book\test.dat.
+getParent(): String Returns the complete parent directory of the current directory or the file
represented by the File object. For example, new
File("c:\\book\\test.dat").getParent() returns c:\book.
+lastModified(): long Returns the time that the file was last modified.
+delete(): boolean Deletes this file. The method returns true if the deletion succeeds.
+renameTo(dest: File): boolean Renames this file. The method returns true if the operation succeeds. 22
Problem: Explore File Properties
public static void main(String[] args) {

java.io.File file = new java.io.File("c:\\test\\sample.txt");

System.out.println("Does it exist? " + file.exists());
System.out.println("The file has " + file.length() + " bytes");
System.out.println("Can it be read? " + file.canRead());
System.out.println("Can it be written? " + file.canWrite());
System.out.println("Is it a directory? " + file.isDirectory());
System.out.println("Is it a file? " + file.isFile());
System.out.println("Is it absolute? " + file.isAbsolute());
System.out.println("Is it hidden? " + file.isHidden());
System.out.println("Absolute path is " + file.getAbsolutePath());
System.out.println("Last modified on " + new java.util.Date(file.lastModified()));
}

TestFileClass
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 Text I/O
A File object encapsulates the properties of a file or
a path, but does not contain the methods for
reading/writing data from/to a file. In order to
perform I/O, you need to create objects using
appropriate Java I/O classes. The objects contain
the methods for reading/writing data from/to a file.
This section introduces how to read/write strings
and numeric values from/to a text file using the
Scanner and PrintWriter classes.

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 Writing Data Using PrintWriter
import java.io.*;
public class JavaApplication6 {
public static void main(String[] args) throws
FileNotFoundException {
File file = new File("c:\\test\\scores.txt");
if (file.exists()) {
System.out.println("File already exists");
System.exit(0);
}
// Create a file
PrintWriter output = new PrintWriter(file);
// Write formatted output to the file
output.print("John T Smith ");
output.println(90);
output.print("Eric K Jones ");
output.println(85);
// Close the file
output.close();
}
}
WriteData
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 Writing Data Using FileWriter
import java.io.*;
public class JavaApplication6 {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
String dosya = "c:\\test\\scores.txt";
// Create a file
FileWriter output = new FileWriter(dosya,true);
// Write formatted output to the file
output.write("John T Smith ");
output.write("90\r\n");
output.write("Eric K Jones ");
output.write("85\r\n");
// Close the file
output.close();
}
}

WriteData
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 Reading Data Using Scanner
import java.io.*;
import java.util.Scanner;
public class JavaApplication6 {
public static void main(String[] args) throws FileNotFoundException {
File file = new File("c:\\test\\scores.txt");
// Create a Scanner for the file
Scanner input = new Scanner(file);
// Read data from a file
while (input.hasNext()) {
String firstName = input.next();
String mi = input.next();
String lastName = input.next();
int score = input.nextInt();
System.out.println(
firstName + " " + mi + " " + lastName + " " + score);
}
// Close the file
input.close();
}
}

ReadData

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import java.io.*;
(GUI) File Dialogs
import java.util.Scanner;
import javax.swing.JFileChooser;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
public class JavaApplication6 {
public static void main(String[] args) throws FileNotFoundException {
JFileChooser fileChooser = new JFileChooser();
if (fileChooser.showOpenDialog(null) == JFileChooser.APPROVE_OPTION) {
// Get the selected file
File file = fileChooser.getSelectedFile();
// Create a Scanner for the file
Scanner input = new Scanner(file);
// Read text from the file
String text = "";
while (input.hasNext()) {
text += input.nextLine() + "\n";
}
JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null, text);
// Close the file
input.close();
} else {
System.out.println("No file selected");
}
}
}

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