Java - Character Class

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Normally, when we work with characters, we use primitive data types char.

Example

char ch = 'a';

// Unicode for uppercase Greek omega character

char uniChar = '\u039A'; 

// an array of chars

char[] charArray ={ 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e' }; 

However in development, we come across situations where we need to use objects instead of primitive data types. In order to achieve this, Java provides wrapper class Character for primitive data type char.

The Character class offers a number of useful class (i.e., static) methods for manipulating characters. You can create a Character object with the Character constructor −

Character ch = new Character('a');

The Java compiler will also create a Character object for you under some circumstances. For example, if you pass a primitive char into a method that expects an object, the compiler automatically converts the char to a Character for you. This feature is called autoboxing or unboxing, if the conversion goes the other way.

Example

// Here following primitive char 'a'

// is boxed into the Character object ch

Character ch = 'a';

// Here primitive 'x' is boxed for method test,

// return is unboxed to char 'c'

char c = test('x');

Escape Sequences

A character preceded by a backslash (\) is an escape sequence and has a special meaning to the compiler.

The newline character (\n) has been used frequently in this tutorial in System.out.println() statements to advance to the next line after the string is printed.

Following table shows the Java escape sequences −

When an escape sequence is encountered in a print statement, the compiler interprets it accordingly.

Example

If you want to put quotes within quotes, you must use the escape sequence, \", on the interior quotes −

public class Test {

   public static void main(String args[]) {

      System.out.println("She said \"Hello!\" to me.");

   }

}

This will produce the following result −

Output

She said "Hello!" to me.

Character Methods

Following is the list of the important instance methods that all the subclasses of the Character class implement −

For a complete list of methods, please refer to the java.lang.Character API specification.