// Strings are one of the most common data types in Java

// A String contains a sequence of characters (its data), along

// with methods (operations) that can apply to that data
import java.util.*;
public class StringExamples {
public static void main (String [ ] args)
{
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
// A string consists of a quoted series of characters
// A String is a reference type -- it has data and code, and is
stored
// in a two-part structure (primitive types like int and float h
ave
// a one-part structure). The variable name stores the memory ad
dress
// where the actual data is stored in memory
String s =
// Step 1:
// Step 2:
// Step 3:
// Step 4:

new String("abcdef");
Create a reference variable s that points to a String
Create a new String-sized object in memory
Initialize the new String with the date "abcdef"
Assign the memory location of our new String to s

// Thanks to Java's "syntactic sugar", we have a simpler way

// to create a String variable (this notation ONLY works for
// Strings, not for other types of objects):
String a = "foobar123";
// String operations include the following:
// length() -- # of characters in the string
int len = a.length();
System.out.println(a + " has " + len + " characters");
// Use + to concatenate two or more Strings
a = a + s;
System.out.println(a);
// toUpperCase() and toLowerCase() do what you would expect; NOT
E that
// they DO NOT change the original String
System.out.println(s.toUpperCase());
System.out.println(s);
// Use charAt() and indexOf() to query a String for information
// charAt() returns the character at a specific position. Charac
ter positions
// are numbered starting with 0 and running up to (length-1).
// indexOf() returns the position of a specific substring, or -1
if not found
System.out.print("Enter some text: ");
String text = input.nextLine();
System.out.println("The 3rd character is " + text.charAt(2));

System.out.print("Enter text to find: ");

String toFind = input.nextLine();
int pos = text.indexOf(toFind);
System.out.println("Found at position " + pos);
// substring() allows us to extract part of a String
// Form 1: substring(a, b) gives all characters from a up to but
not including b
// Form 2: substring(a) gives all characters from a through end
// example: Given a sequence "AAA BBB CCC" where we know that BB
B is always 3
// characters long, but AAA and CCC can be any length, how do we
extract just
// BBB from the input
System.out.print("Enter line of data: ");
String data = input.nextLine();
int space = data.indexOf(" ");
if (space == -1) // not found
{
System.out.println("ERROR in input format!");
}
else
{
// Check to see if the String contains a second space (m
eaning
// there are at least three "words")
if (data.indexOf(" ", space+1) != -1)
{
// Extract three characters from the second/midd
le "word"
String extracted = data.substring(space+1, space
+4);
System.out.println("Extracted field is " + extra
cted);
}
else
{
System.out.println("Malformed input");
}
}
// Use the replace() method to change all occurrences of a
// specific substring
//
// Usage: source-string.replace(text_to_search_for, replacement_
text)
System.out.print("Enter some more text: ");
String textBlock = input.nextLine();
System.out.print("Enter text to replace: ");
String source = input.nextLine();
System.out.print("Enter text to replace it with: ");
String newText = input.nextLine();
String replaced = textBlock.replace(source, newText);
System.out.println(replaced);

// Use the trim() command to remove any leading or trailing

// whitespace (but not whitespace between words)
String fullOfWhitespace = " adghsuoag dsgafo dsahlj ";
System.out.println("[" + fullOfWhitespace + "]");
// Apply trim():
fullOfWhitespace = fullOfWhitespace.trim();
System.out.println("[" + fullOfWhitespace + "]");
// String comparisons
String first = "abcdef";
String second = "abc";
second = second + "def";
System.out.println("Comparing " + first + " to " + second);
if (first == second)
{
System.out.println("They are the same");
}
else
{
System.out.println("They are different");
}
// == performs a SHALLOW comparison -- it only checks the value
// immediately associated with a variable. In the case of a Stri
ng,
// this means that it looks at the memory address where the data
// is stored, rather than the actual data
// The String method equals() performs a DEEP comparison, where
it
// looks at the actual end data for its comparison
if (first.equals(second) == true)
{
System.out.println("They are the same");
}
else
{
System.out.println("They are different");
}
// equals() has a case-insensitive option named: equalsIgnoreCas
e()
// The same thing happens for comparisons between Strings. Use t
he
// compareTo() operation to figure out greater than/less than re
lations
//
//
//
//
//

a.compareTo(b) is negative is a < b

a.compareTo(b) is 0 if a and b are equal
a.compareTo(b) is positive is a > b
(greater than = comes later in the alphabet)

System.out.print("Enter first string to compare: ");

String comp1 = input.nextLine();
System.out.print("Enter second string to compare: ");

String comp2 = input.nextLine();

System.out.println("CompareTo() result: " + comp1.compareTo(comp
2));
// We can use compareToIgnoreCase() to perform a case-insensitiv
e comparison
System.out.println("CompareToIgnoreCase(): " + comp1.compareToIg
noreCase(comp2));
}
}