working with String class

String is most frequently used class in Java.

immutable and flyweight design

String is immutable

String is designed with the Flyweight design pattern. A pool of Strings is maintained by the String class.

pool of Strings and intern()

You can always get the string in the pool by invoking intern().

For any two Strings s1 & s2, _s1.intern( ) _== _s2.intern( ) _only if _s1.equals(s2) _is true.

All literal strings and string-valued constant expressions are interned.

For more details about intern(), please refer to http://java-performance.info/string-intern-in-java-6-7-8/

stings concatenation

• Use plus (“+”) operator for concatenating constants.
• Use _concat( ) _method for concatenating 2 string variables.
• Use _StringBuilder _or _StringBuffer _for concatenating a number of _String _variables, and most importantly in loops.
• Prefer _StringBuilder _to _StringBuffer _unless multiple threads can have access to it. Notice:  Plus operator is more efficient than the other two as the JVM optimizes constants.

Text formatting

In Java, it’s convenient to format something as text representations.

 printf-style formatting

This is supported by java.util.Formatter class.

Some class uses this Formatter indirectly:

System.out.printf(String, Object...)
String.format(String, Object...)

 java.text.Format family

Format

|— NumberFormat

|— ChoiceFormat

|— DecimalFormat

|— DateFormat

|— SimpleDateFormat

|— MessageFormat