Interface CharSequence

All Known Subinterfaces:: Name

All Known Implementing Classes:: CharBuffer, Segment, String, StringBuffer, StringBuilder

public interface CharSequence

A CharSequence is a readable sequence of char values. This interface provides uniform, read-only access to many different kinds of char sequences. A char value represents a character in the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP) or a surrogate. Refer to Unicode Character Representation for details.

This interface does not refine the general contracts of the equals and hashCode methods. The result of testing two objects that implement CharSequence for equality is therefore, in general, undefined. Each object may be implemented by a different class, and there is no guarantee that each class will be capable of testing its instances for equality with those of the other. It is therefore inappropriate to use arbitrary CharSequence instances as elements in a set or as keys in a map.

Since:: 1.4

Method Summary

All Methods Static Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods Default Methods
Modifier and Type	Method	Description
`char`	`charAt(int index)`	Returns the `char` value at the specified index.
`default IntStream`	`chars()`	Returns a stream of `int` zero-extending the `char` values from this sequence.
`default IntStream`	`codePoints()`	Returns a stream of code point values from this sequence.
`static int`	`compare(CharSequence cs1, CharSequence cs2)`	Compares two `CharSequence` instances lexicographically.
`int`	`length()`	Returns the length of this character sequence.
`CharSequence`	`subSequence(int start, int end)`	Returns a `CharSequence` that is a subsequence of this sequence.
`String`	`toString()`	Returns a string containing the characters in this sequence in the same order as this sequence.

Method Detail

length

int length()

Returns the length of this character sequence. The length is the number of 16-bit chars in the sequence.

Returns:: the number of chars in this sequence

charAt

char charAt(int index)

Returns the char value at the specified index. An index ranges from zero to length() - 1. The first char value of the sequence is at index zero, the next at index one, and so on, as for array indexing.

If the char value specified by the index is a surrogate, the surrogate value is returned.

Parameters:: index - the index of the char value to be returned
Returns:: the specified char value
Throws:: IndexOutOfBoundsException - if the index argument is negative or not less than length()

subSequence

CharSequence subSequence(int start,
                         int end)

Returns a CharSequence that is a subsequence of this sequence. The subsequence starts with the char value at the specified index and ends with the char value at index end - 1. The length (in chars) of the returned sequence is end - start, so if start == end then an empty sequence is returned.

Parameters:: start - the start index, inclusive; end - the end index, exclusive
Returns:: the specified subsequence
Throws:: IndexOutOfBoundsException - if start or end are negative, if end is greater than length(), or if start is greater than end

toString

String toString()

Returns a string containing the characters in this sequence in the same order as this sequence. The length of the string will be the length of this sequence.

Overrides:: toString in class Object
Returns:: a string consisting of exactly this sequence of characters

chars

default IntStream chars()

Returns a stream of int zero-extending the char values from this sequence. Any char which maps to a surrogate code point is passed through uninterpreted.

The stream binds to this sequence when the terminal stream operation commences (specifically, for mutable sequences the spliterator for the stream is late-binding). If the sequence is modified during that operation then the result is undefined.

Returns:: an IntStream of char values from this sequence
Since:: 1.8

codePoints

default IntStream codePoints()

Returns a stream of code point values from this sequence. Any surrogate pairs encountered in the sequence are combined as if by Character.toCodePoint and the result is passed to the stream. Any other code units, including ordinary BMP characters, unpaired surrogates, and undefined code units, are zero-extended to int values which are then passed to the stream.

Returns:: an IntStream of Unicode code points from this sequence
Since:: 1.8

compare

static int compare(CharSequence cs1,
                   CharSequence cs2)

Compares two CharSequence instances lexicographically. Returns a negative value, zero, or a positive value if the first sequence is lexicographically less than, equal to, or greater than the second, respectively.

The lexicographical ordering of CharSequence is defined as follows. Consider a CharSequence cs of length len to be a sequence of char values, cs[0] to cs[len-1]. Suppose k is the lowest index at which the corresponding char values from each sequence differ. The lexicographic ordering of the sequences is determined by a numeric comparison of the char values cs1[k] with cs2[k]. If there is no such index k, the shorter sequence is considered lexicographically less than the other. If the sequences have the same length, the sequences are considered lexicographically equal.

Parameters:: cs1 - the first CharSequence; cs2 - the second CharSequence
Returns:: the value 0 if the two CharSequence are equal; a negative integer if the first CharSequence is lexicographically less than the second; or a positive integer if the first CharSequence is lexicographically greater than the second.
Since:: 11