Java StringJoiner
last modified July 8, 2023
In this article we cover Java StringJoiner.
StringJoiner is used to construct a sequence of characters separated by a delimiter and optionally starting with a supplied prefix and ending with a supplied suffix.
StringJoiner is also used internally by the join
method of the String class.
Using StringJoiner
The following example joins numbers with the StringJoiner class.
package com.zetcode;
import java.util.StringJoiner;
public class JoinStringEx {
public static void main(String[] args) {
var joined = new StringJoiner(",");
joined.add("1");
joined.add("2");
joined.add("3");
joined.add("4");
joined.add("5");
System.out.println(joined);
}
}
The example concatenates five numbers and prints the final string to the console.
var joined = new StringJoiner(",");
A new instance of the StringJoiner class is created. The comma
character is used as a delimiter.
joined.add("1");
joined.add("2");
joined.add("3");
joined.add("4");
joined.add("5");
Five values are added with the add method.
System.out.println(join);
The StringJoiner is converted to a string and printed to the
console.
$ java com/zetcode/JoinStringEx.java 1,2,3,4,5
Java String.join
In the second example, we join strings with the String.join
method.
package com.zetcode;
public class JoinStringEx {
public static void main(String[] args) {
var joined = String.join("/", "2016", "8", "5");
System.out.println(joined);
}
}
The String.join method internally uses the StringJoiner.
var joined = String.join("/", "2016", "8", "5");
A date is concatenated with the String.join method.
$ java com/zetcode/JoinStringEx.java 2016/8/5
Java join list
The third example concatenates elements of a list.
package com.zetcode;
import java.util.List;
public class JoinListEx {
public static void main(String[] args) {
var words = List.of("Today", "is", "a", "beautiful", "day");
var joined = String.join(" ", words);
System.out.println(joined);
}
}
A list can be passed as an argument to the String.join method.
var joined = String.join(" ", words);
The elements of the list are joined with a single space character.
$ java com/zetcode/JoinListEx.java Today is a beautiful day
Reading CSV file
The following example reads numbers from a CSV file and later joins them with a
StringJoiner. We use the Gradle build tool to build the example.
build.gradle
src
└── main
├── java
│ └── com
│ └── zetcode
│ └── JoinStringEx.java
└── resources
└── numbers.csv
The example has his project structure. The numbers that we are going to read are
located in the resources directory.
version '1.0' apply plugin: 'java' apply plugin: 'application' sourceCompatibility = 17 mainClassName = "com.zetcode.JoinStringEx"
This is the Gradle build file.
13,24,35,16,50
This is the numbers.csv file.
package com.zetcode;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.util.Scanner;
import java.util.StringJoiner;
public class JoinStringEx {
public static void main(String[] args) throws FileNotFoundException {
var fileName = "src/main/resources/numbers.csv";
var scanner = new Scanner(new File(fileName));
scanner.useDelimiter(",");
var joined = new StringJoiner("|");
while (scanner.hasNext()) {
joined.add(scanner.next());
}
scanner.close();
System.out.println(joined);
}
}
The example reads CSV file, containing numbers, and joins them with a
StringJoiner using a different delimiter.
var scanner = new Scanner(new File(fileName));
scanner.useDelimiter(",");
The values are read with the Scanner class. The numbers are
separated by a comma character so we set the comma delimiter with the
useDelimiter method.
var joined = new StringJoiner("|");
A StringJoiner class is instantiated with a "|" delimiter.
while (scanner.hasNext()) {
join.add(scanner.next());
}
We retrieve the values with the scanner and concatenate them with the joiner.
$ gradle run -q 13|24|35|16|50
Writing CSV file
The next example writes numbers to a CSV file.
build.gradle
src
└── main
├── java
│ └── com
│ └── zetcode
│ └── JoinStringEx.java
└── resources
The example has his project structure. We are going to create a new file in the current working directory.
version '1.0' apply plugin: 'java' apply plugin: 'application' sourceCompatibility = 17 mainClassName = "com.zetcode.JoinStringEx"
This is the Gradle build file.
package com.zetcode;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.util.StringJoiner;
public class JoinStringEx {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
var fileName = "src/main/resources/numbers2.csv";
var joined = new StringJoiner(",");
joined.add("21");
joined.add("43");
joined.add("54");
joined.add("76");
joined.add("98");
var newFile = new File(fileName);
newFile.createNewFile();
try (var pw = new PrintWriter(newFile)) {
pw.write(joined.toString());
}
}
}
The example joins five numbers with a StringJoiner and writes the
concatendated string to a CSV file.
var joined = new StringJoiner(",");
joined.add("21");
joined.add("43");
joined.add("54");
joined.add("76");
joined.add("98");
Five numbers are concatenated with the StringJoiner. The numbers
are separated with a comma character.
var newFile = new File(fileName); newFile.createNewFile();
A new file object is created in the current working directory.
try (var pw = new PrintWriter(newFile)) {
pw.write(joined.toString());
}
The joined values are written to the file.
$ gradle run -q
We run the application.
$ cat src/main/resources/numbers2.csv 21,43,54,76,98
We show the contents of the created file.
Java Collectors.joining
Tthe Collectors.joining method returns a Collector
that concatenates the input elements, separated by the specified delimiter, in
encounter order.
package com.zetcode;
import java.util.stream.Collectors;
import java.util.stream.Stream;
public class JoiningEx {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Stream<String> stream = Stream.of("Jan", "Peter", "Robert");
String names = stream.collect(Collectors.joining(" "));
System.out.println(names);
}
}
The example uses the stream API to concatenate three names.
$ java com/zetcode/JoiningEx.java Jan Peter Robert
Author
List all Java tutorials.
In this article we have covered StringJoiner and
Collectors.joining.
