StringBuilder vs String concatenation in toString() in Java

Question

Given the 2 toString() implementations below, which one is preferred:

public String toString(){
    return \"{a:\"+ a + \", b:\" + b + \", c: \"         


        

Answer 1

Version 1 is preferable because it is shorter and the compiler will in fact turn it into version 2 - no performance difference whatsoever.

More importantly given we have only 3 properties it might not make a difference, but at what point do you switch from concat to builder?

At the point where you're concatenating in a loop - that's usually when the compiler can't substitute StringBuilder by itself.

Answer 2

Apache Commons-Lang has a ToStringBuilder class which is super easy to use. It does a nice job of both handling the append-logic as well as formatting of how you want your toString to look.

public void toString() {
     ToStringBuilder tsb =  new ToStringBuilder(this);
     tsb.append("a", a);
     tsb.append("b", b)
     return tsb.toString();
}

Will return output that looks like com.blah.YourClass@abc1321f[a=whatever, b=foo].

Or in a more condensed form using chaining:

public void toString() {
     return new ToStringBuilder(this).append("a", a).append("b", b").toString();
}

Or if you want to use reflection to include every field of the class:

public String toString() {
    return ToStringBuilder.reflectionToString(this);
}

You can also customize the style of the ToString if you want.

Answer 3

I also had clash with my boss on the fact whether to use append or +.As they are using Append(I still cant figure out as they say every time a new object is created). So I thought to do some R&D.Although I love Michael Borgwardt explaination but just wanted to show an explanation if somebody will really need to know in future.

/**
 *
 * @author Perilbrain
 */
public class Appc {
    public Appc() {
        String x = "no name";
        x += "I have Added a name" + "We May need few more names" + Appc.this;
        x.concat(x);
        // x+=x.toString(); --It creates new StringBuilder object before concatenation so avoid if possible
        //System.out.println(x);
    }

    public void Sb() {
        StringBuilder sbb = new StringBuilder("no name");
        sbb.append("I have Added a name");
        sbb.append("We May need few more names");
        sbb.append(Appc.this);
        sbb.append(sbb.toString());
        // System.out.println(sbb.toString());
    }
}

and disassembly of above class comes out as

 .method public <init>()V //public Appc()
  .limit stack 2
  .limit locals 2
met001_begin:                                  ; DATA XREF: met001_slot000i
  .line 12
    aload_0 ; met001_slot000
    invokespecial java/lang/Object.<init>()V
  .line 13
    ldc "no name"
    astore_1 ; met001_slot001
  .line 14

met001_7:                                      ; DATA XREF: met001_slot001i
    new java/lang/StringBuilder //1st object of SB
    dup
    invokespecial java/lang/StringBuilder.<init>()V
    aload_1 ; met001_slot001
    invokevirtual java/lang/StringBuilder.append(Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lan\
g/StringBuilder;
    ldc "I have Added a nameWe May need few more names"
    invokevirtual java/lang/StringBuilder.append(Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lan\
g/StringBuilder;
    aload_0 ; met001_slot000
    invokevirtual java/lang/StringBuilder.append(Ljava/lang/Object;)Ljava/lan\
g/StringBuilder;
    invokevirtual java/lang/StringBuilder.toString()Ljava/lang/String;
    astore_1 ; met001_slot001
  .line 15
    aload_1 ; met001_slot001
    aload_1 ; met001_slot001
    invokevirtual java/lang/String.concat(Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lang/Strin\
g;
    pop
  .line 18
    return //no more SB created
met001_end:                                    ; DATA XREF: met001_slot000i ...

; ===========================================================================

;met001_slot000                                ; DATA XREF: <init>r ...
    .var 0 is this LAppc; from met001_begin to met001_end
;met001_slot001                                ; DATA XREF: <init>+6w ...
    .var 1 is x Ljava/lang/String; from met001_7 to met001_end
  .end method
;44-1=44
; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------


; Segment type: Pure code
  .method public Sb()V //public void Sb
  .limit stack 3
  .limit locals 2
met002_begin:                                  ; DATA XREF: met002_slot000i
  .line 21
    new java/lang/StringBuilder
    dup
    ldc "no name"
    invokespecial java/lang/StringBuilder.<init>(Ljava/lang/String;)V
    astore_1 ; met002_slot001
  .line 22

met002_10:                                     ; DATA XREF: met002_slot001i
    aload_1 ; met002_slot001
    ldc "I have Added a name"
    invokevirtual java/lang/StringBuilder.append(Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lan\
g/StringBuilder;
    pop
  .line 23
    aload_1 ; met002_slot001
    ldc "We May need few more names"
    invokevirtual java/lang/StringBuilder.append(Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lan\
g/StringBuilder;
    pop
  .line 24
    aload_1 ; met002_slot001
    aload_0 ; met002_slot000
    invokevirtual java/lang/StringBuilder.append(Ljava/lang/Object;)Ljava/lan\
g/StringBuilder;
    pop
  .line 25
    aload_1 ; met002_slot001
    aload_1 ; met002_slot001
    invokevirtual java/lang/StringBuilder.toString()Ljava/lang/String;
    invokevirtual java/lang/StringBuilder.append(Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lan\
g/StringBuilder;
    pop
  .line 28
    return
met002_end:                                    ; DATA XREF: met002_slot000i ...


;met002_slot000                                ; DATA XREF: Sb+25r
    .var 0 is this LAppc; from met002_begin to met002_end
;met002_slot001                                ; DATA XREF: Sb+9w ...
    .var 1 is sbb Ljava/lang/StringBuilder; from met002_10 to met002_end
  .end method
;96-49=48
; ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

From the above two codes you can see Michael is right.In each case only one SB object is created.

Answer 4

See the example below:

static final int MAX_ITERATIONS = 50000;
static final int CALC_AVG_EVERY = 10000;

public static void main(String[] args) {
    printBytecodeVersion();
    printJavaVersion();
    case1();//str.concat
    case2();//+=
    case3();//StringBuilder
}

static void case1() {
    System.out.println("[str1.concat(str2)]");
    List<Long> savedTimes = new ArrayList();
    long startTimeAll = System.currentTimeMillis();
    String str = "";
    for (int i = 0; i < MAX_ITERATIONS; i++) {
        long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
        str = str.concat(UUID.randomUUID() + "---");
        saveTime(savedTimes, startTime);
    }
    System.out.println("Created string of length:" + str.length() + " in " + (System.currentTimeMillis() - startTimeAll) + " ms");
}

static void case2() {
    System.out.println("[str1+=str2]");
    List<Long> savedTimes = new ArrayList();
    long startTimeAll = System.currentTimeMillis();
    String str = "";
    for (int i = 0; i < MAX_ITERATIONS; i++) {
        long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
        str += UUID.randomUUID() + "---";
        saveTime(savedTimes, startTime);
    }
    System.out.println("Created string of length:" + str.length() + " in " + (System.currentTimeMillis() - startTimeAll) + " ms");
}

static void case3() {
    System.out.println("[str1.append(str2)]");
    List<Long> savedTimes = new ArrayList();
    long startTimeAll = System.currentTimeMillis();
    StringBuilder str = new StringBuilder("");
    for (int i = 0; i < MAX_ITERATIONS; i++) {
        long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
        str.append(UUID.randomUUID() + "---");
        saveTime(savedTimes, startTime);
    }
    System.out.println("Created string of length:" + str.length() + " in " + (System.currentTimeMillis() - startTimeAll) + " ms");

}

static void saveTime(List<Long> executionTimes, long startTime) {
    executionTimes.add(System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime);
    if (executionTimes.size() % CALC_AVG_EVERY == 0) {
        out.println("average time for " + executionTimes.size() + " concatenations: "
                + NumberFormat.getInstance().format(executionTimes.stream().mapToLong(Long::longValue).average().orElseGet(() -> 0))
                + " ms avg");
        executionTimes.clear();
    }
}

Output:

java bytecode version:8
java.version: 1.8.0_144
[str1.concat(str2)]
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.096 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.185 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.327 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.501 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.656 ms avg
Created string of length:1950000 in 17745 ms
[str1+=str2]
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.21 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.652 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 1.129 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 1.727 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 2.302 ms avg
Created string of length:1950000 in 60279 ms
[str1.append(str2)]
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.002 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.002 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.002 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.002 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.002 ms avg
Created string of length:1950000 in 100 ms

As the string length increases, so does the concatenation time.
That is where the StringBuilder is definitely needed.
As you see, the concatenation: UUID.randomUUID()+"---", does not really affect the time.

P.S.: I don't think When to use StringBuilder in Java is really a duplicate of this.
This question talks about toString() which most of the times does not perform concatenations of huge strings.

---

2019 Update

Since java8 times, things have changed a bit. It seems that now(java13), the concatenation time of += is practically the same as str.concat(). However StringBuilder concatenation time is still constant. (Original post above was slightly edited to add more verbose output)

java bytecode version:13
java.version: 13.0.1
[str1.concat(str2)]
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.047 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.1 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.17 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.255 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.336 ms avg
Created string of length:1950000 in 9147 ms
[str1+=str2]
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.037 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.097 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.249 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.298 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.326 ms avg
Created string of length:1950000 in 10191 ms
[str1.append(str2)]
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.001 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.001 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.001 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.001 ms avg
average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.001 ms avg
Created string of length:1950000 in 43 ms

Worth noting also bytecode:8/java.version:13 combination has a good performance benefit compared to bytecode:8/java.version:8

Answer 5

Using latest version of Java(1.8) the disassembly(javap -c) shows the optimization introduced by compiler. + as well sb.append() will generate very similar code. However, it will be worthwhile inspecting the behaviour if we are using + in a for loop.

Adding strings using + in a for loop

Java:

public String myCatPlus(String[] vals) {
    String result = "";
    for (String val : vals) {
        result = result + val;
    }
    return result;
}

ByteCode:(for loop excerpt)

12: iload         5
14: iload         4
16: if_icmpge     51
19: aload_3
20: iload         5
22: aaload
23: astore        6
25: new           #3                  // class java/lang/StringBuilder
28: dup
29: invokespecial #4                  // Method java/lang/StringBuilder."<init>":()V
32: aload_2
33: invokevirtual #5                  // Method java/lang/StringBuilder.append:(Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lang/StringBuilder;
36: aload         6
38: invokevirtual #5                  // Method java/lang/StringBuilder.append:(Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lang/StringBuilder;
41: invokevirtual #6                  // Method java/lang/StringBuilder.toString:()Ljava/lang/String;
44: astore_2
45: iinc          5, 1
48: goto          12

Adding strings using stringbuilder.append

Java:

public String myCatSb(String[] vals) {
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    for(String val : vals) {
        sb.append(val);
    }
    return sb.toString();
}

ByteCdoe:(for loop excerpt)

17: iload         5
19: iload         4
21: if_icmpge     43
24: aload_3
25: iload         5
27: aaload
28: astore        6
30: aload_2
31: aload         6
33: invokevirtual #5                  // Method java/lang/StringBuilder.append:(Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lang/StringBuilder;
36: pop
37: iinc          5, 1
40: goto          17
43: aload_2

There is a bit of glaring difference though. In first case, where + was used, new StringBuilder is created for each for loop iteration and generated result is stored by doing a toString() call(29 through 41). So you are generating intermediate Strings that your really do not need while using + operator in for loop.

Answer 6

I prefer:

String.format( "{a: %s, b: %s, c: %s}", a, b, c );

...because it's short and readable.

I would not optimize this for speed unless you use it inside a loop with a very high repeat count and have measured the performance difference.

I agree, that if you have to output a lot of parameters, this form can get confusing (like one of the comments say). In this case I'd switch to a more readable form (perhaps using ToStringBuilder of apache-commons - taken from the answer of matt b) and ignore performance again.