How to Count Characters in a String: Simple Program Guide

Counting the total number of characters in a string is a common operation in Java programming. It helps in various scenarios, such as determining the length of a user input or validating the input length against certain criteria. In the following sections, we will explore different approaches to accomplish this task efficiently.

Initializing the String

Before we begin counting the characters, we need to have a string to work with. In Java, you can initialize a string using the String class.

String str= "Count Total Characters";

Using the length() Method

The simplest way to count the characters in a string is by using the length() method provided by the String class. This method returns the number of characters in the string.

str.length();

Using a Loop to Count Characters

Another approach to count the characters in a string is by using a loop. We can iterate over each character in the string and increment a counter variable.

for(int i=0;i<str.length();i++) {
            if(str.charAt(i)!=' ' ) {
                 count++;
                }
          }

Performance Considerations

When counting characters in a string, it’s important to consider performance. The length() method has a time complexity of O(1) as it directly returns the length. However, using a loop to count characters has a time complexity of O(n) since it iterates over each character.

Sample code

public class CountCharacters{

public static void main(String[] args) {

String str= "Count Total Characters";
int count= 0;

System.out.println("Length of String is==  " + str.length());
      for(int i=0;i<str.length();i++) {
            if(str.charAt(i)!=' ' ) {
                 count++;
                }
          }
System.out.println("count of characters = " + count);
     }
}

  
//=================================
//Output : 
//Length of String is :22
//Count of characters : 19

Conclusion

Counting the total number of characters in a given string is a fundamental task in Java programming. In this article, we explored various approaches to accomplish this task efficiently, including using the length() method, loops and count the no of characters.

Remember to consider the performance implications of each approach and choose the one that best suits your specific requirements.