JAVA: Multiply a character

[arigold]

I want to create 'N' number of character 'X' next to each other and then store it for later use, how can i do this

Thank you

[DJ Trauma]

Create a loop that adds the character to a string N times.

 
String characters = "";
int n = 10;
for(int i=0; i < n; i++) {
	  characters = characters + "x";
}

[Commodore Max]

Or create an array of "char"s.

[arigold]

  DJ Trauma said:

Create a loop that adds the character to a string N times.

 
String characters = "";
int n = 10;
for(int i=0; i < n; i++) {
	  characters = characters + "x";
}

thanks, guessing x cant be replaced with " "; a space, just tried it didnt work.

[Echilon]

  arigold said:

thanks, guessing x cant be replaced with " "; a space, just tried it didnt work.

It would work, but it would be better to use a StringBuffer.

char repChar = ' ';
StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer();
for(int i=0;i<100;i++) {
  buffer.append(repChar);
}

[JamesCherrill]

Adding chars to a String actually creates a new String each time, so if it's going to be a long String that's going to be inefficient. StringBuffer is better because StringBuffers are mutable - ie you don't create a new one each time provided you use append(...).

Probably the cleanest is to create a char array, something like (not checked for typos!):

public String create(int n, char c) {
   char[] temp = new char[n];
   for (int i=0; i++, i<n) char[i] = c;
   return new String(temp);
}

Alternatively, depending on what you want to do with it later, just keep the array of chars and don't bother to put it in a String

public char[] create(int n, char c) {
   char[] temp = new char[n];
   for (int i=0; i++, i<n) char[i] = c;
   return temp;
}

Edited October 26, 2008 by JamesCherrill