A mutable sequence of characters. This class provides an API compatible with
StringBuffer
, but with no guarantee of synchronization. This class is designed for use as a drop-in replacement for
StringBuffer
in places where the string buffer was being used by a single thread (as is generally the case). Where possible, it is recommended that this class be used in preference to
StringBuffer
as it will be faster under most implementations.
The principal operations on a StringBuilder
are the append
and insert
methods, which are overloaded so as to accept data of any type. Each effectively converts a given datum to a string and then appends or inserts the characters of that string to the string builder. The append
method always adds these characters at the end of the builder; the insert
method adds the characters at a specified point.
For example, if z
refers to a string builder object whose current contents are "start
", then the method call z.append("le")
would cause the string builder to contain "startle
", whereas z.insert(4, "le")
would alter the string builder to contain "starlet
".
In general, if sb refers to an instance of a StringBuilder
, then sb.append(x)
has the same effect as sb.insert(sb.length(), x)
. Every string builder has a capacity. As long as the length of the character sequence contained in the string builder does not exceed the capacity, it is not necessary to allocate a new internal buffer. If the internal buffer overflows, it is automatically made larger.
Instances of StringBuilder
are not safe for use by multiple threads. If such synchronization is required then it is recommended that {@link java.lang.StringBuffer} be used.
@author Michael McCloskey
@version 1.11, 11/17/05
@see java.lang.StringBuffer
@see java.lang.String
@since 1.5