Question

When we extend DefaultHandler, we usually override the characters function.

I was wondering which would be a more efficient way to extract the String supplied…

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1. Would it be using a for loop and a StringBuilder?

   @Override
   public void characters(char[] ch, int start, int length) throws SAXException {
       StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(length); 
       for(int i=start; i<start+length; i++)
           sb.append(ch[i]);
       String values = sb.toString();
   }
   

2. Would it be using a simple substring?

   @Override
   public void characters(char[] ch, int start, int length) throws SAXException {
       String values = (new String(ch)).substring(start, start + length);
   }
   

3. Is there another approach?

Answer 1

There is a constructor that takes a char[] and a range, if that is what you are looking for:

new String(ch, start, length);