Question

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How to represent empty char in Java Character class

I am using the replace function as defined in java.lang.String, and I tried using “\0” as the equivalent for “” (blank String) but it adds a space not a blank string.

Is there a Character equivalent for a blank String?

Answer 1

There is no such thing as an “empty character”. A char is a value-type, so it has to have a value. An absence of a value is the absence of a char – which is why you can have empty strings (i.e. “no characters”) and a nullable char, but not an “empty char”.

Anyway, the String.replace(char, char) method is meant to substitute one character for another. This operation is very simple because it means that a single block of known size has to be allocated. Whereas String.replaceAll(string,string) is a considerably more complicated method to implement, which is why they’re different.

Unfortunately there is no String.replace(char,string) method – but I hope you can understand why.