Difference between StringBuilder and StringBuffer

Question

What is the main difference between StringBuffer and StringBuilder? Is there any performance issues when deciding on any one of these?

Answer 1

StringBuilder and StringBuffer are almost the same. The difference is that StringBuffer is synchronized and StringBuilder is not. Although, StringBuilder is faster than StringBuffer, the difference in performance is very little. StringBuilder is a SUN's replacement of StringBuffer. It just avoids synchronization from all the public methods. Rather than that, their functionality is the same.

Example of good usage:

If your text is going to change and is used by multiple threads, then it is better to use StringBuffer. If your text is going to change but is used by a single thread, then use StringBuilder.