Convert a String to Char in Java

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Hassan Saeed Dec 21, 2022 Sep 22, 2020
Java Java Char Java String
  1. charAt() to Convert String to Char in Java
  2. toCharArray() to Convert String to Char in Java
Convert a String to Char in Java

This tutorial discusses methods to convert a string to a char in Java.

charAt() to Convert String to Char in Java

The simplest way to convert a character from a String to a char is using the charAt(index) method. This method takes an integer as input and returns the character on the given index in the String as a char.

The below example illustrates this:

public class MyClass {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        String myString = "string";
        char myChar = myString.charAt(0);
        System.out.println(myChar);
    }
}

Output:

> s

However, if you try to input an integer greater than the length of the String, it will throw an error.

The below example illustrates this:

public class MyClass {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        String myString = "string";
        char myChar = myString.charAt(6);
        System.out.println(myChar);
    }
}

Output:

> Exception in thread "main" java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: 6
	at java.base/java.lang.StringLatin1.charAt(StringLatin1.java:47)
	at java.base/java.lang.String.charAt(String.java:693)
	at MyClass.main(MyClass.java:4)

toCharArray() to Convert String to Char in Java

We can use this method if we want to convert the whole string to a character array.

The below example illustrates this:

public class MyClass {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        String myString = "string";
        char[] myChars = myString.toCharArray();
        for (int i=0; i<myChars.length; i++){
            System.out.println(myChars[i]);
        }
    }
}

Output:

s
t
r
i
n
g

If we want to access a char at a specific location, we can simply use myChars[index] to get the char at the specified location.

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