Chapter 9 Strings

Lecture notes for computer programming 1

Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
Prepared by: Iyad Albayouk

1 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Motivations
Often you encounter the problems that involve string
processing and file input and output. Suppose you need to
write a program to replace all occurrences of a word with
a new word in a file. How do you solve this problem? This
chapter introduces strings and text files, which will enable
you to solve this problem.

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 Objectives

To use the String class to process fixed strings (§9.2).

To construct strings (§9.2.1).

To understand that strings are immutable and to create an interned string (§9.2.2).

To compare strings (§9.2.3).

To get string length and characters, and combine strings (§9.2.4).

To obtain substrings (§9.2.5).

To convert, replace, and split strings (§9.2.6).

To match, replace, and split strings by patterns (§9.2.7).

To search for a character or substring in a string (§9.2.8).

To convert between a string and an array (§9.2.9).

To convert characters and numbers into a string (§9.2.10).

To obtain a formatted string (§9.2.11).

To check whether a string is a palindrome (§9.3).

To convert hexadecimal numbers to decimal numbers (§9.4).

To use the Character class to process a single character (§9.5).

To use the StringBuilder and StringBuffer classes to process flexible strings (§9.6).

To distinguish among the String, StringBuilder, and StringBuffer classes (§9.2–9.6).

To learn how to pass arguments to the main method from the command line (§9.7).

3 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 The String Class
• Constructing a String:
– String message = "Welcome to Java“;
– String message = new String("Welcome to Java“);
– String s = new String();
• Obtaining String length and Retrieving Individual Characters in a
string
• String Concatenation (concat)
• Substrings (substring(index), substring(start, end))
• Comparisons (equals, compareTo)
• String Conversions
• Finding a Character or a Substring in a String
• Conversions between Strings and Arrays
• Converting Characters and Numeric Values to Strings
4 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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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";

5 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Strings Are Immutable
A String object is immutable; its contents cannot be changed.
Does the following code change the contents of the string?
String s = "Java";
s = "HTML";

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rights reserved.
 Trace Code
String s = "Java";
s = "HTML";

After executing String s = "Java"; After executing s = "HTML";

s : String s : String This string object

is now
String object for "Java" String object for "Java" unreferenced

Contents cannot be changed : String

String object for "HTML"

7 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
 Interned Strings
Since strings are immutable and are frequently
used, to improve efficiency and save memory, the
JVM uses a unique instance for string literals with
the same character sequence. Such an instance is
called interned. For example, the following
statements:

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 Examples
String s1 = "Welcome to Java"; s1
: String
s3
String s2 = new String("Welcome to Java"); Interned string object
for "Welcome to Java"
String s3 = "Welcome to Java";

System.out.println("s1 == s2 is " + (s1 == s2)); s2 : String

System.out.println("s1 == s3 is " + (s1 == s3));
A string object for
"Welcome to Java"

display A new object is created if you use the

new operator.
s1 == s is false
If you use the string initializer, no new
s1 == s3 is true object is created if the interned object is
already created.

9 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 String Comparisons
java.lang.String
+equals(s1: Object): boolean Returns true if this string is equal to string s1.
+equalsIgnoreCase(s1: String): Returns true if this string is equal to string s1 case-
boolean insensitive.
+compareTo(s1: String): int Returns an integer greater than 0, equal to 0, or less than 0
to indicate whether this string is greater than, equal to, or
less than s1.
+compareToIgnoreCase(s1: String): Same as compareTo except that the comparison is case-
int insensitive.
+regionMatches(toffset: int, s1: String, Returns true if the specified subregion of this string exactly
offset: int, len: int): boolean matches the specified subregion in string s1.
+regionMatches(ignoreCase: boolean, Same as the preceding method except that you can specify
toffset: int, s1: String, offset: int, whether the match is case-sensitive.
len: int): boolean
+startsWith(prefix: String): boolean Returns true if this string starts with the specified prefix.
+endsWith(suffix: String): boolean Returns true if this string ends with the specified suffix.

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 String Comparisons
• equals

String s
s1
1 = new String("Welcome“);
String s2
s2 = "welcome";

if (s1
(s1.equals(s
.equals(s2
2)){
// s1
s1 and s
s2
2 have the same contents
}

if (s1
(s1 == s
s22) {
// s1
s1 and s
s22 have the same reference
}
11 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 String Comparisons, cont.
• compareTo
compareTo(Object
(Object object
object))

String s
s1
1 = new String("Welcome“);
String s2
s2 = "welcome";

if (s1
(s1.compareTo(s
.compareTo(s2
2) > 0) {
// s1 is greater than s s2
2
}
else if (s1
(s1.compareTo(s
.compareTo(s22) == 0) {
// s1 and ss2
2 have the same contents
}
else
// s1 is less than ss2
2
12 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 String Length, Characters, and
Combining Strings

java.lang.String
+length(): int Returns the number of characters in this string.
+charAt(index: int): char Returns the character at the specified index from this string.
+concat(s1: String): String Returns a new string that concatenate this string with string s1.
string.

13 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Finding String Length
Finding string length using the length()
method:

message = "Welcome";
() (returns 7)
message.length()
message.length

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 Retrieving Individual Characters
in a String
• Do not use message[
message[0
0]
• Use message.charAt
message.charAt(index)
(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
s3 = s
s11.concat(s
.concat(s22);

String s3
s3 = s1
s1 + s2
s2;

s1 + s2
s2 + s3
s3 + s4
s4 + s5
s5 same as
(((s1
(((s1.concat(s
.concat(s22)).concat
)).concat(s
(s3
3)).concat
)).concat(s
(s4
4)).concat
)).concat(s
(s5
5);

16 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Extracting Substrings
java.lang.String
+substring(beginIndex: int): Returns this string’s substring that begins with the character at
String the specified beginIndex and extends to the end of the string,
as shown in Figure 9.6.
+substring(beginIndex: int, Returns this string’s substring that begins at the specified
endIndex: int): String beginIndex and extends to the character at index endIndex –
1, as shown in Figure 9.6. Note that the character at endIndex
is not part of the substring.

17 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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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 s
s1
1 = "Welcome to Java";
String s2
s2 = s
s11.substring(
.substring(00, 11)
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)

Figure 9.6 The substring method obtains a substring from a string.

18 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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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.

19 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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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".replaceAll("e", "AB") returns a new string,
WABlcomAB.
"Welcome".replaceAll("el", "AB") returns a new string,
WABcome.
20 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Splitting a String
String[] tokens = "Java#HTML#Perl".split
"Java#HTML#Perl".split("#");
("#");
for (int
(int i = 0; i < tokens.length
tokens.length;
; i++)
System.out.print(tokens[
System.out.print (tokens[i
i] + " "); ");

displays
Java HTML Perl

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 Matching, Replacing and Splitting by Patterns
• You can match, replace, or split a string by specifying a
pattern. This is an extremely useful and powerful feature,
commonly known as regular expression. A regular
expression (abbreviated regex) is a string that describes
a pattern for matching a set of strings. Regular expression
is complex to beginning students. For this reason, two
simple patterns are used in this section. Please refer to
Supplement III.F, “Regular Expressions,” for further studies.
"Java".matches
Java".matches("Java");
("Java");
"Java".equals
Java".equals("Java");
("Java");
"Java is fun".matches
fun".matches("Java.*");
("Java.*");
"Java is cool".matches
cool".matches("Java.*");
("Java.*");
22 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Matching, Replacing and Splitting by Patterns

The following statement evaluates to true

true.

"440
440--02
02--4534
4534".matches("
".matches("\\\d{
d{33}-\\d{
d{22}-\\d{
d{44}" )

Here \\d represents a single digit, and \\d{3} represents

three digits.

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 Matching, Replacing and Splitting by Patterns
The replaceAll, replaceFirst, and split methods can be used
with a regular expression. For example, the following
statement returns a new string that replaces $, +, or # in
"a+b$#c" by the string NNN.

String s = "a+b
"a+b$#
$#c".replaceAll
c".replaceAll("[$+#]",
("[$+#]", "NNN");
System.out.println(s);
System.out.println (s);

Here the regular expression [$+#] specifies a pattern that

matches $, +, or #. So, the output is aNNNbNNNNNNc
aNNNbNNNNNNc.

24 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Matching, Replacing and Splitting by Patterns
The following statement splits the string into an array of strings
delimited by some punctuation marks.

String[] tokens = "Java,C?C#,C

"Java,C?C#,C++".split("[.,:;?]");
++".split("[.,:;?]");

for (int
(int i = 0; i < tokens.length
tokens.length;; i++)
System.out.println(tokens[
System.out.println (tokens[ii]);

The string is split into:

Java, C, C#, and C++, which are stored in array tokens.

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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.
Java".indexOf('W')
"Welcome to Java".indexOf ('x') returns -1.
Java".indexOf('x')
"Welcome to Java".indexOf ('o', 5) returns 9.
Java".indexOf('o',
"Welcome to ("come") returns 3.
Java".indexOf("come")
Java".indexOf
"Welcome to Java".indexOf ("Java", 5) returns 11
Java".indexOf("Java", 11..
"Welcome to Java".indexOf ("java", 5) returns -1.
Java".indexOf("java",
"Welcome to Java".lastIndexOf ('a') returns 14
Java".lastIndexOf('a') 14..

27 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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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.

29 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Example to find Palindromes
1 import java.util.Scanner;
2
3 public class CheckPalindrome {
4 /** Main method */
5 public static void main(String[] args) {
6 // Create a Scanner
7 Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
8
9 // Prompt the user to enter a string
10 System.out.print("Enter a string: ");
11 String s = input.nextLine();
12
13 if (isPalindrome(s))
14 System.out.println(s + " is a palindrome");
15 else
16 System.out.println(s + " is not a palindrome");
17 }

30 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Example to find Palindromes, Cont.
18
19 /** Check if a string is a palindrome */
20 public static boolean isPalindrome(String s) {
21 // The index of the first character in the string
22 int low = 0;
23
24 // The index of the last character in the string
25 int high = s.length() - 1;
26
27 while (low < high) {
28 if (s.charAt(low) != s.charAt(high))
29 return false; // Not a palindrome
30
31 low++;
32 high--;
33 }
34
35 return true; // The string is a palindrome
36 }
37 }
31 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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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
+compareTo(anotherCharacter: Character): int Compares this character with another
+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

32 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Examples
Character charObject = new Character('b');

charObject.compareTo(new Character('a')) returns 1

charObject.compareTo(new Character('b')) returns 0
charObject.compareTo(new Character('c')) returns -1
charObject.compareTo(new Character('d') returns –2
charObject.equals(new Character('b')) returns true
charObject.equals(new Character('d')) returns false

33 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Problem: Counting Each Letter in
a String
This example gives a program that counts the
number of occurrence of each letter in a
string. Assume the letters are not case-
sensitive.

34 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Example of Counting Each Letter in a String
1 import java.util.Scanner;
2
3 public class CountEachLetter {
4 /** Main method */
5 public static void main(String[] args) {
6 // Create a Scanner
7 Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
8
9 // Prompt the user to enter a string
10 System.out.print("Enter a string: ");
11 String s = input.nextLine();
12
13 // Invoke the countLetters method to count each letter
14 int[] counts = countLetters(s.toLowerCase());
15
16 // Display results
17 for (int i = 0; i < counts.length; i++) {
18 if (counts[i] != 0)
19 System.out.println((char)('a' + i) + " appears " +
20 counts[i] + ((counts[i] == 1) ? " time" : " times"));
21 }
2235 } Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
Example of Counting Each Letter in a String, Cont.

23
24 /** Count each letter in the string */
25 public static int[] countLetters(String s) {
26 int[] counts = new int[26];
27
28 for (int i = 0; i < s.length(); i++) {
29 if (Character.isLetter(s.charAt(i)))
30 counts[s.charAt(i) - 'a']++;
31 }
32
33 return counts;
34 }
35 }

36 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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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.

37 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 StringBuilder Constructors
java.lang.StringBuilder

+StringBuilder() Constructs an empty string builder with capacity 16.

+StringBuilder(capacity: int) Constructs a string builder with the specified capacity.
+StringBuilder(s: String) Constructs a string builder with the specified string.

38 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Modifying Strings in the Builder
ja v a .la n g .S trin g B u ild e r

+ a p p en d ( d a ta : c h a r[]): S tr in g B u il d e r A p p e n d s a ch a r a rra y in to t h i s str in g b u il d e r.

+ a p p en d ( d a ta : c h a r[], o ffs e t : i n t, l e n : i n t) : A p p e n d s a su b a rra y i n d a ta i n t o th i s stri n g b u il d e r .
S tri n g B u il d e r
+ a p p en d ( v : a P r im itiv e T y p e ): S tr in g B u il d e r A p p e n d s a p ri m it iv e ty p e v a lu e a s a stri n g t o th i s
b u il d e r .
+ a p p en d ( s: S t ri n g ) : S tri n g B u ild e r A p p e n d s a str in g t o th i s str in g b u il d e r.
+ d e le te ( s ta rtI n d e x : in t , e n d I n d e x : i n t): D e l e t e s c h a ra c t e r s fr o m sta rtI n d e x to e n d I n d e x .
S tri n g B u il d e r
+ d e le te C h a r A t (in d e x : i n t) : S tri n g B u il d e r D e l e t e s a c h a ra c te r a t t h e s p e c i fi e d i n d e x .
+ in se rt(i n d e x : in t, d a ta : c h a r[], o ffs e t: i n t , In s e rt s a su b a rra y o f th e d a ta in t h e a rra y to t h e b u i ld e r
le n : in t ): S tr in g B u il d e r a t th e s p e ci fi e d i n d e x .
+ in se rt( o ffs e t: in t, d a ta : c h a r[]): In s e rt s d a ta i n t o t h i s b u i ld e r a t t h e p o si ti o n o ffs e t .
S tri n g B u il d e r
+ in se rt( o ffs e t: in t, b : a P r im it iv e T y p e ): In s e rt s a v a lu e c o n v e r t e d to a str in g i n t o th i s b u i ld e r .
S tri n g B u il d e r
+ in se rt( o ffs e t: in t, s: S tri n g ) : S tri n g B u il d e r In s e rt s a s tri n g in to t h i s b u il d e r a t th e p o siti o n o ffs et.
+ re p la c e ( sta rt In d e x : i n t, e n d I n d e x : in t, s: R e p la c e s t h e c h a ra c t e r s i n th i s b u i ld e r fro m sta rtI n d e x
S tri n g ): S tri n g B u il d e r to e n d I n d ex w it h t h e s p e c i fi e d stri n g .
+ re v er s e (): S tri n g B u ild e r R e v e r se s t h e c h a ra c t e r s i n th e b u il d e r.
+ s e tC h a r A t(i n d e x : i n t, c h : c h a r): v o i d S e t s a n e w ch a ra c t e r a t t h e sp e c i fie d in d e x i n t h i s
b u il d e r .

39 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Examples
stringBuilder.append("Java");
stringBuilder.insert(11, "HTML and ");
stringBuilder.delete(8, 11) changes the builder to Welcome
Java.
stringBuilder.deleteCharAt(8) changes the builder to
Welcome o Java.
stringBuilder.reverse() changes the builder to avaJ ot
emocleW.
stringBuilder.replace(11, 15, "HTML")
changes the builder to Welcome to HTML.
stringBuilder.setCharAt(0, 'w') sets the builder to welcome
to Java.

40 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
 The toString, capacity, length,
setLength, and charAt Methods
java.lang.StringBuilder

+toString(): String Returns a string object from the string builder.

+capacity(): int Returns the capacity of this string builder.
+charAt(index: int): char Returns the character at the specified index.
+length(): int Returns the number of characters in this builder.
+setLength(newLength: int): void Sets a new length in this builder.
+substring(startIndex: int): String Returns a substring starting at startIndex.
+substring(startIndex: int, endIndex: int): Returns a substring from startIndex to endIndex-1.
String
+trimToSize(): void Reduces the storage size used for the string builder.

41 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Problem: Checking Palindromes
Ignoring Non-alphanumeric Characters

This example gives a program that counts the

number of occurrence of each letter in a
string. Assume the letters are not case-
sensitive.

42 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
 Example of Checking Palindromes Ignoring Non-
alphanumeric Characters
1 import java.util.Scanner;
2
3 public class PalindromeIgnoreNonAlphanumeric {
4 /** Main method */
5 public static void main(String[] args) {
6 // Create a Scanner
7 Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
8
9 // Prompt the user to enter a string
10 System.out.print("Enter a string: ");
11 String s = input.nextLine();
12
13 // Display result
14 System.out.println("Ignoring non-alphanumeric characters, \nis "
15 + s + " a palindrome? " + isPalindrome(s));
16 }

43 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
17
18 /** Return true if a string is a palindrome */
19 public static boolean isPalindrome(String s) {
20 // Create a new string by eliminating non-alphanumeric chars
21 String s1 = filter(s);
22
23 // Create a new string that is the reversal of s1
24 String s2 = reverse(s1);
25
26 // Compare if the reversal is the same as the original string
27 return s2.equals(s1);
28 }

44 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
29
30 /** Create a new string by eliminating non-alphanumeric chars */
31 public static String filter(String s) {
32 // Create a string builder
33 StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
34
35 // Examine each char in the string to skip alphanumeric char
36 for (int i = 0; i < s.length(); i++) {
37 if (Character.isLetterOrDigit(s.charAt(i))) {
38 stringBuilder.append(s.charAt(i));
39 }
40 }
41
42 // Return a new filtered string
43 return stringBuilder.toString();
44 }
45
46 /** Create a new string by reversing a specified string */
47 public static String reverse(String s) {
48 StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder(s);
49 stringBuilder.reverse(); // Invoke reverse in StringBuilder
50 return stringBuilder.toString();
51 }}
45 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
 Main Method Is Just a Regular Method

You can call a regular method by passing actual

parameters. Can you pass arguments to main? Of
course, yes. For example, the main method in
class B is invoked by a method in A, as shown
below:
public class A { class B {
public static void main(String[] args) { public static void main(String[] args) {
String[] strings = {"New York", for (int i = 0; i < args.length; i++)
"Boston", "Atlanta"}; System.out.println(args[i]);
B.main(strings); }
} }
}

46 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
 Command-Line Parameters
class TestMain {
public static void main(String[] args
args)) {
...
}
}

java TestMain arg

arg00 arg
arg11 arg
arg22 ... argn

47 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
 Processing
Command-Line Parameters
In the main method, get the arguments from
args[
args [0], args
args[[1], ..., args [n], which
args[n]
corresponds to arg
arg0 arg1, ..., argn in
0, arg1
the command line.

48 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
 Problem: Calculator

• Objective: Write a program that will perform

binary operations on integers. The program
receives three parameters: an operator and
two integers.

java Calculator "2 + 3"

java Calculator "2 - 3"
java Calculator "2 / 3"
java Calculator "2 * 3"
49 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
 Example of Calculator
1 public class Calculator {
2 /** Main method */
3 public static void main(String[] args) {
4 // Check number of strings passed
5 if (args.length != 1) {
6 System.out.println(
7 "Usage: java Calculator \"operand1 operator operand2\"");
8 System.exit(0);
9 }
10
11 // The result of the operation
12 int result = 0;
13
14 // The result of the operation
15 String[] tokens = args[0].split(" ");

50 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
16
17 // Determine the operator
18 switch (tokens[1].charAt(0)) {
19 case '+': result = Integer.parseInt(tokens[0]) + Integer.parseInt(tokens[2]); break;
20 case '-': result = Integer.parseInt(tokens[0]) – Integer.parseInt(tokens[2]); break;
21 case '*': result = Integer.parseInt(tokens[0]) * Integer.parseInt(tokens[2]); break;
22 case '/': result = Integer.parseInt(tokens[0]) / Integer.parseInt(tokens[2]);
23 }
24
25 // Display result
26 System.out.println(tokens[0] + ' ' + tokens[1] + ' '
27 + tokens[2] + " = " + result);
28 }
29 }

51 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
 Regular Expression Syntax
Regular Expression Matches Example

x a specified character x Java matches Java

. any single character Java matches J..a
(ab|cd) a, b, or c ten matches t(en|im]
[abc] a, b, or c Java matches Ja[uvwx]a
[^abc] any character except Java matches Ja[^ars]a
a, b, or c
[a-z] a through z Java matches [A-M]av[a-d]
[^a-z] any character except Java matches Jav[^b-d]
a through z
[a-e[m-p]] a through e or Java matches
m through p [A-G[I-M]]av[a-d]
[a-e&&[c-p]] intersection of a-e Java matches
with c-p [A-P&&[I-M]]av[a-d]

\d a digit, same as [1-9] Java2 matches "Java[\\d]"

\D a non-digit $Java matches "[\\D][\\D]ava"
\w a word character Java matches "[\\w]ava"
\W a non-word character $Java matches "[\\W][\\w]ava"
\s a whitespace character "Java 2" matches "Java\\s2"
\S a non-whitespace char Java matches "[\\S]ava"

p* zero or more Java matches "[\\w]*"

occurrences of pattern p
p+ one or more Java matches "[\\w]+"
occurrences of pattern p
p? zero or one Java matches "[\\w]?Java"
occurrence of pattern p Java matches "[\\w]?ava"
p{n} exactly n Java matches "[\\w]{4}"
occurrences of pattern p
p{n,} at least n Java matches "[\\w]{3,}"
occurrences of pattern p
p{n,m} between n and m Java matches "[\\w]{1,9}"
occurrences (inclusive)

52 Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Ninth Edition, (c) 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.