In this article, you’ll learn a few different ways to remove a character from a String
object in Java. Although the String
class doesn’t have a remove()
method, you can use variations of the replace()
method and the substring()
method to remove characters from strings.
Note: String
objects are immutable, which means that they can’t be changed after they’re created. All of the String
class methods described in this article return a new String
object and do not change the original object. The type of string you use depends on the requirements of your program. Learn more about other types of string classes and why strings are immutable in Java.
The String
class has the following methods that you can use to replace or remove characters:
replace(char oldChar, char newChar)
: Returns a new String
object that replaces all of the occurrences of oldChar
in the given string with newChar
. You can also use the replace()
method, in the format replace(CharSequence target, CharSequence replacement)
, to return a new String
object that replaces a substring in the given string.replaceFirst(String regex, String replacement)
: Returns a new String
object that replaces the first substring that matches the regular expression in the given string with the replacement.replaceAll(String regex, String replacement)
: Returns a new String
object that replaces each substring that matches the regular expression in the given string with the replacement.substring(int start, int end)
: Returns a new String
object that contains a subsequence of characters currently contained in this sequence. The substring begins at the specified start and extends to the character at index end minus 1.Notice that the first argument for the replaceAll()
and replaceFirst()
methods is a regular expression. You can use a regular expression to remove a pattern from a string.
Note: You need to use double quotes to indicate literal string values when you use the replace()
methods. If you use single quotes, then the JRE assumes you’re indicating a character constant and you’ll get an error when you compile the program.
You can remove all instances of a character from a string in Java by using the replace()
method to replace the character with an empty string. The following example code removes all of the occurrences of lowercase “a
” from the given string:
String str = "abc ABC 123 abc";
String strNew = str.replace("a", "");
Outputbc ABC 123 bc
You can remove spaces from a string in Java by using the replace()
method to replace the spaces with an empty string. The following example code removes all of the spaces from the given string:
String str = "abc ABC 123 abc";
String strNew = str.replace(" ", "");
OutputabcABC123abc
You can remove only the first occurrence of a character or substring from a string in Java by using the replaceFirst()
method to replace the character or substring with an empty string. The following example code removes the first occurrence of “ab
” from the given string:
String str = "abc ABC 123 abc";
String strNew = str.replaceFirst("ab", "");
Outputc ABC 123 abc
You can use a regular expression to remove characters that match a given pattern from a string in Java by using the replace.All()
method to replace the characters with an empty string. The following example code removes all of the lowercase letters from the given string:
String str = "abc ABC 123 abc";
String strNew = str.replaceAll("([a-z])", "");
OutputABC 123
There is no specific method to replace or remove the last character from a string, but you can use the String substring() method to truncate the string. The following example code removes the last character from the given string:
String str = "abc ABC 123 abc";
String strNew = str.substring(0, str.length()-1);
Outputabc ABC 123 ab
The following example file defines a class that includes all of the method examples provided in this article, and prints out the results after invoking each method on the given string. You can use this example code to try it out yourself on different strings using different matching patterns and replacement values.
If you have Java installed, you can create a new file called JavaStringRemove.java
and add the following code to the file:
public class JavaStringRemove {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String str = "abc ABC 123 abc";
// Remove a character from a string in Java
System.out.println("String after removing all the 'a's = "+str.replace("a", ""));
// Remove spaces from a string in Java
System.out.println("String after removing all the spaces = "+str.replace(" ", ""));
// Remove a substring from a string in Java
System.out.println("String after removing the first 'ab' substring = "+str.replaceFirst("ab", ""));
// Remove all the lowercase letters from a string in Java
System.out.println("String after removing all the lowercase letters = "+str.replaceAll("([a-z])", ""));
// Remove the last character from a string in Java
System.out.println("String after removing the last character = "+str.substring(0, str.length()-1));
}
}
Compile and run the program:
- javac JavaStringRemove.java
- java JavaStringRemove
You get the following output:
OutputString after removing all the 'a's = bc ABC 123 bc
String after removing all the spaces = abcABC123abc
String after removing the first 'ab' substring = c ABC 123 abc
String after removing all the lowercase letters = ABC 123
String after removing the last character = abc ABC 123 ab
Each method in the JavaStringRemove
example class operates on the given string. The output shows that the characters specified in each method have been removed from the string.
In this article you learned various ways to remove characters from strings in Java using methods from the String
class, including replace()
, replaceAll()
, replaceFirst()
, and substring()
. Continue your learning with more Java tutorials.
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tried to replace, just like you show’d but tells me an error: The method replace(char, char) in the type String is not applicable for the arguments (char, String) my code: aNum=aNum.replace(aNum.charAt(i), “”);
- slava
this is useful
- Piyush Chavare
I want to replace a few words from a String , Whenever a match will be founded it will remove that match . Example : “Learning java is not so easy but also” /* is not so much hard */ ". All that I need to replace the whole comment section ( /* ----------*/). In this case what I should do ?
- Indrajit Das
This article will provide good knowledge, who are welling to learn java. . It was great experience. Good platform to enhance our knowledge. I found a clear description in each and every topic.
- Nisha
how to remove the string of characters from another string eg: “lhe” from “hello world”.
- abcd