Java: String - add character n-times [duplicate]

Answer 1

To have an idea of the speed penalty, I have tested two versions, one with Array.fill and one with StringBuilder.

public static String repeat(char what, int howmany) {
    char[] chars = new char[howmany];
    Arrays.fill(chars, what);
    return new String(chars);
}

and

public static String repeatSB(char what, int howmany) {
    StringBuilder out = new StringBuilder(howmany);
    for (int i = 0; i < howmany; i++)
        out.append(what);
    return out.toString();
}

using

public static void main(String... args) {
    String res;
    long time;

    for (int j = 0; j < 1000; j++) {
        res = repeat(' ', 100000);
        res = repeatSB(' ', 100000);
    }
    time = System.nanoTime();
    res = repeat(' ', 100000);
    time = System.nanoTime() - time;
    System.out.println("elapsed repeat: " + time);

    time = System.nanoTime();
    res = repeatSB(' ', 100000);
    time = System.nanoTime() - time;
    System.out.println("elapsed repeatSB: " + time);
}

(note the loop in main function is to kick in JIT)

The results are as follows:

elapsed repeat: 65899
elapsed repeatSB: 305171

It is a huge difference

Answer 2

In case of Java 8 you can do:

int n = 4;
String existing = "...";
String result = existing + String.join("", Collections.nCopies(n, "*"));

Output:

...****

In Java 8 the String.join method was added. But Collections.nCopies is even in Java 5.

Answer 3

Use this:

String input = "original";
String newStr = "new"; //new string to be added
int n = 10 // no of times we want to add
input = input + new String(new char[n]).replace("\0", newStr);