Java Characters and Strings: Managing Text Data Efficiently

Understand how to work with characters and strings in Java. The char data type is specifically designed to store a single character, enclosed in single quotes. This guide explores the nuances of character handling, as well as how to utilize the String class for managing sequences of characters. Learn best practices for manipulating text data effectively in your Java applications.

Java Characters and Strings

Characters

The char data type is used to store a single character, enclosed within single quotes:

char myGrade = 'B';
System.out.println(myGrade);  // Outputs B

If you know ASCII values, you can also assign characters using their ASCII codes:

char myVar1 = 65, myVar2 = 66, myVar3 = 67;
System.out.println(myVar1);  // Outputs A
System.out.println(myVar2);  // Outputs B
System.out.println(myVar3);  // Outputs C

Strings

The String data type is used to store a sequence of characters (text). String values must be surrounded by double quotes:

String greeting = "Hello World";
System.out.println(greeting);  // Outputs Hello World

The String type is considered a special non-primitive data type in Java because it refers to an object. String objects have methods that can manipulate strings, which we will cover in later chapters.