How to add a Char to a String in Java

In most programming languages, a string is just an array of characters.

A character is a data type that can hold a single value.

Java offers many different ways in which you can extend a string with a new character.

In this post, we'll explore the many different ways in which you can add a character to a string.

Using the + operator

The most straightforward way to add a character to a string is to use the + operator.

This operator is used to concatenate two strings together, but it can also be used to add a character to a string.

JAVA
public class Example {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        char charToAdd = 'A';

        String str = "Hello world " + charToAdd;
    
        System.out.println(str);
    }
}

BASH
Hello world A

What happens under the hood is that the character is converted to a string automatically and then concatenated to the string.

Using the append() method on the StringBuilder class

Another way you can add a character to a string is to use the append() method on the StringBuilder class.

The StringBuilder class, as its name suggests, helps you build a string piece by piece.

One of those pieces can be your character.

Here's our earlier example but using the StringBuilder class:

JAVA
public class Example {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        char charToAdd = 'A';

        StringBuilder str = new StringBuilder("Hello world ");
        str.append(charToAdd);

        System.out.println(str);
    }
}

BASH
Hello world A

The append() method can in take in a character, which it will convert to a string and then add it to the sequence internally.

Conclusion

In this post, we looked at the two different ways in which you can add a character to a string.

They work essentially the same way, but the StringBuilder class is more efficient if you're using it to build a complex string.

Hopefully, this post has helped you. Thanks for reading!

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