How to Convert Character Array to String in Java?

Last Updated : 20 Dec, 2024

Strings are defined as an array of characters. The difference between a character array and a string is the string is terminated with a special character "\0". A character array can be converted to a string and vice versa. In this article, we will discuss how to convert a character array to a string.

Examples:

Input 1 : char s[] = { 'g', 'e', 'e', 'k', 's', 'f', 'o', 'r', 'g', 'e', 'e', 'k', 's' }
Output 1 : "geeksforgeeks"
Input 2 : char s[] = { 'c', 'o', 'd', 'i', 'n', 'g' }
Output 2 : "coding"

Program:

Java

// Convert Character Array to String
// Using copyOf() method ofArrays() Class
import java.util.*;

class GFG {

    // To convert a character
    // array to a string using the constructor
    public static String toString(char[] a){
        String str = new String(a);
        return str;
    }

    public static void main(String args[])
    {
       	char s[] = { 'g', 'e', 'e', 'k', 's', 'f', 'o',
                     'r', 'g', 'e', 'e', 'k', 's' };

        System.out.println(toString(s));
    }
}

Output

geeksforgeeks

Here we are using copyOf() method of Array class . The given character can be passed into the String constructor. By default, the character array contents are copied using the Arrays.copyOf() method present in the Arrays class.

Other Methods to Convert Character Array to String

Using StringBuilder class
Using valueOf() method of String class
Using copyValueOf() method of String class
Using Collectors in Streams

1. Using StringBuilder class

Another way to convert a character array to a string is to use the StringBuilder class. Since a StringBuilder is a mutable class, therefore, the idea is to iterate through the character array and append each character at the end of the string. Finally, the string contains the string form of the characters.

Example:

Java

// Convert Character Array to String
// Using StringBuilder Class
import java.util.*;

public class GFG {

    // To convert a character array to a string
    // using the StringBuilder class
    public static String toString(char[] a){

      	StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

        for (int i = 0; i < a.length; i++)
            sb.append(a[i]);

        return sb.toString();
    }

    public static void main(String args[]){
        char s[] = { 'g', 'e', 'e', 'k', 's', 'f', 'o',
                     'r', 'g', 'e', 'e', 'k', 's' };

        System.out.println(toString(s));
    }
}

Output

geeksforgeeks

2. Using valueOf() method of String class

Another way to convert a character array to a string is to use the valueOf() method present in the String class. This method inherently converts the character array to a format where the entire value of the characters present in the array is displayed. This method generally converts int, float, double, char, boolean, and even object to a string. Here we will achieve the goal by converting our character array to string.

Example:

Java

// Convert Character Array to String
// Using valueOf() method
import java.util.*;

class GFG {

    // To convert a character array to string
    // using the valueOf() method
    public static String toString(char[] a)
    {  
        String string = String.valueOf(a);
        return string;
    }

    // Main driver method
    public static void main(String args[])
    {  
        char s[] = { 'g', 'e', 'e', 'k', 's', 'f', 'o',
                     'r', 'g', 'e', 'e', 'k', 's' };

        System.out.println(toString(s));
    }
}

Output

geeksforgeeks

3. Using copyValueOf() method of String class

Using copyValueOf() method of String class to use contents from the character array that are copied and subsequently modified without affecting the string to be returned, hence this method also enables us to convert the character array to a string which can be perceived even better from the example provided below as follows.

Example:

Java

// Convert Character Array to String
// Using copyValueOf() method

import java.util.*;

class GFG {
    
  	public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        
      	char[] arr = { 'g', 'e', 'e', 'k', 's', 'f', 'o',
                       'r', 'g', 'e', 'e', 'k', 's' };

        // Storing it in a string
        // using copyValueOf() over string
        String str = String.copyValueOf(arr);

        System.out.print(str);
    }
}

Output

geeksforgeeks

4. Using Collectors in Streams

With the introduction of streams in java8, we straight away use Collectors in streams to modify our character input array elements and later uses joining() method and return a single string and print it.

Example: