Reverse a string in Java

Question

I have "Hello World" kept in a String variable named hi.

I need to print it, but reversed.

How can I do this? I understand there is some kind of a function already built-in into Java that does that.

Related: Reverse each individual word of “Hello World” string with Java

Answer 1

You can use this:

new StringBuilder(hi).reverse().toString()

StringBuilder was added in Java 5. For versions prior to Java 5, the StringBuffer class can be used instead — it has the same API.

Answer 2

For Online Judges problems that does not allow StringBuilder or StringBuffer, you can do it in place using char[] as following:

public static String reverse(String input){
    char[] in = input.toCharArray();
    int begin=0;
    int end=in.length-1;
    char temp;
    while(end>begin){
        temp = in[begin];
        in[begin]=in[end];
        in[end] = temp;
        end--;
        begin++;
    }
    return new String(in);
}

Answer 3

public static String reverseIt(String source) {
    int i, len = source.length();
    StringBuilder dest = new StringBuilder(len);

    for (i = (len - 1); i >= 0; i--){
        dest.append(source.charAt(i));
    }

    return dest.toString();
}

http://www.java2s.com/Code/Java/Language-Basics/ReverseStringTest.htm

Answer 4

String string="whatever";
String reverse = new StringBuffer(string).reverse().toString();
System.out.println(reverse);

Answer 5

I am doing this by using the following two ways:

Reverse string by CHARACTERS:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    // Using traditional approach
    String result="";
    for(int i=string.length()-1; i>=0; i--) {
        result = result + string.charAt(i);
    }
    System.out.println(result);

    // Using StringBuffer class
    StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer(string);
    System.out.println(buffer.reverse());    
}

Reverse string by WORDS:

public static void reverseStringByWords(String string) {
    StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
    String[] words = string.split(" ");

    for (int j = words.length-1; j >= 0; j--) {
        stringBuilder.append(words[j]).append(' ');
    }
    System.out.println("Reverse words: " + stringBuilder);
}

Answer 6

Take a look at the Java 6 API under StringBuffer

String s = "sample";
String result = new StringBuffer(s).reverse().toString();

Answer 7

Here is an example using recursion:

public void reverseString() {
    String alphabet = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";
    String reverseAlphabet = reverse(alphabet, alphabet.length()-1);
}

String reverse(String stringToReverse, int index){
    if(index == 0){
        return stringToReverse.charAt(0) + "";
    }

    char letter = stringToReverse.charAt(index);
    return letter + reverse(stringToReverse, index-1);
}

Answer 8

Here is a low level solution:

import java.util.Scanner;

public class class1 {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);
        String inpStr = in.nextLine();
        System.out.println("Original String :" + inpStr);
        char temp;
        char[] arr = inpStr.toCharArray();
        int len = arr.length;
        for(int i=0; i<(inpStr.length())/2; i++,len--){
            temp = arr[i];
            arr[i] = arr[len-1];
            arr[len-1] = temp;
        }

        System.out.println("Reverse String :" + String.valueOf(arr));
    }
}

Answer 9

I tried, just for fun, by using a Stack. Here my code:

public String reverseString(String s) {
    Stack<Character> stack = new Stack<>();
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    for (int i = 0; i < s.length(); i++) {
        stack.push(s.charAt(i));
    }
    while (!stack.empty()) {
        sb.append(stack.pop());
    }
    return sb.toString();

}

Answer 10

Since the below method (using XOR) to reverse a string is not listed, I am attaching this method to reverse a string.

The Algorithm is based on :

1.(A XOR B) XOR B = A

2.(A XOR B) XOR A = B

Code snippet:

public class ReverseUsingXOR {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String str = "prateek";
        reverseUsingXOR(str.toCharArray());
    }   

    /*Example:
     * str= prateek;
     * str[low]=p;
     * str[high]=k;
     * str[low]=p^k;
     * str[high]=(p^k)^k =p;
     * str[low]=(p^k)^p=k;
     * 
     * */
    public static void reverseUsingXOR(char[] str) {
        int low = 0;
        int high = str.length - 1;

        while (low < high) {
            str[low] = (char) (str[low] ^ str[high]);
            str[high] = (char) (str[low] ^ str[high]);   
            str[low] = (char) (str[low] ^ str[high]);
            low++;
            high--;
        }

        //display reversed string
        for (int i = 0; i < str.length; i++) {
            System.out.print(str[i]);
        }
    }

}

Output:

keetarp

Answer 11

As others have pointed out the preferred way is to use:

new StringBuilder(hi).reverse().toString()

But if you want to implement this by yourself, I'm afraid that the rest of responses have flaws.

The reason is that String represents a list of Unicode points, encoded in a char[] array according to the variable-length encoding: UTF-16.

This means some code points use a single element of the array (one code unit) but others use two of them, so there might be pairs of characters that must be treated as a single unit (consecutive "high" and "low" surrogates).

public static String reverseString(String s) {
    char[] chars = new char[s.length()];
    boolean twoCharCodepoint = false;
    for (int i = 0; i < s.length(); i++) {
        chars[s.length() - 1 - i] = s.charAt(i);
        if (twoCharCodepoint) {
            swap(chars, s.length() - 1 - i, s.length() - i);
        }
        twoCharCodepoint = !Character.isBmpCodePoint(s.codePointAt(i));
    }
    return new String(chars);
}

private static void swap(char[] array, int i, int j) {
    char temp = array[i];
    array[i] = array[j];
    array[j] = temp;
}

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("C:/temp/reverse-string.txt");
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("Linear B Syllable B008 A: ");
    sb.appendCodePoint(65536); //http://unicode-table.com/es/#10000
    sb.append(".");
    fos.write(sb.toString().getBytes("UTF-16"));
    fos.write("\n".getBytes("UTF-16"));
    fos.write(reverseString(sb.toString()).getBytes("UTF-16"));
}

Answer 12

Using charAt() method

String name = "gaurav";
String reversedString = "";
    
for(int i = name.length() - 1; i >= 0; i--){
    reversedString += name.charAt(i);
}

System.out.println(reversedString);

Using toCharArray() method

String name = "gaurav";
char [] stringCharArray = name.toCharArray();
String reversedString = "";
    
for(int i = stringCharArray.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
    reversedString += stringCharArray[i];
}

System.out.println(reversedString);

Using reverse() method of the StringBuilder

String name = "gaurav";
    
String reversedString = new StringBuilder(name).reverse().toString();
    
System.out.println(reversedString);

Check https://coderolls.com/reverse-a-string-in-java/

Answer 13

It is very simple in minimum code of lines

public class ReverseString {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String s1 = "neelendra";
        for(int i=s1.length()-1;i>=0;i--)
            {
                System.out.print(s1.charAt(i));
            }
    }
}

Answer 14

This did the trick for me

public static void main(String[] args) {

    String text = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";

    for (int i = (text.length() - 1); i >= 0; i--) {
        System.out.print(text.charAt(i));
    }
}

Answer 15

1. Using Character Array:

public String reverseString(String inputString) {
    char[] inputStringArray = inputString.toCharArray();
    String reverseString = "";
    for (int i = inputStringArray.length - 1; i >= 0; i--) {
        reverseString += inputStringArray[i];
    }
    return reverseString;
}

2. Using StringBuilder:

public String reverseString(String inputString) {
    StringBuilder stringBuilder = new StringBuilder(inputString);
    stringBuilder = stringBuilder.reverse();
    return stringBuilder.toString();
}

OR

return new StringBuilder(inputString).reverse().toString();

Answer 16

System.out.print("Please enter your name: ");
String name = keyboard.nextLine();

String reverse = new StringBuffer(name).reverse().toString();
String rev = reverse.toLowerCase();
System.out.println(rev);

I used this method to turn names backwards and into lower case.

Answer 17

One natural way to reverse a String is to use a StringTokenizer and a stack. Stack is a class that implements an easy-to-use last-in, first-out (LIFO) stack of objects.

String s = "Hello My name is Sufiyan";

Put it in the stack frontwards

Stack<String> myStack = new Stack<>();
StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(s);
while (st.hasMoreTokens()) {
     myStack.push(st.nextToken());
}

Print the stack backwards

System.out.print('"' + s + '"' + " backwards by word is:\n\t\"");
while (!myStack.empty()) {
  System.out.print(myStack.pop());
  System.out.print(' ');
}

System.out.println('"');

Answer 18

    public String reverse(String s) {

        String reversedString = "";
        for(int i=s.length(); i>0; i--) {
            reversedString += s.charAt(i-1);
        }   

        return reversedString;
    }

Answer 19

You can also try this:

public class StringReverse {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String str = "Dogs hates cats";
        StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer(str);
        System.out.println(sb.reverse());
    }
}

Answer 20

public class Test {

public static void main(String args[]) {
   StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer("Game Plan");
   buffer.reverse();
   System.out.println(buffer);
 }  
}

Answer 21

All above solution is too good but here I am making reverse string using recursive programming.

This is helpful for who is looking recursive way of doing reverse string.

public class ReversString {

public static void main(String args[]) {
    char s[] = "Dhiral Pandya".toCharArray();
    String r = new String(reverse(0, s));
    System.out.println(r);
}

public static char[] reverse(int i, char source[]) {

    if (source.length / 2 == i) {
        return source;
    }

    char t = source[i];
    source[i] = source[source.length - 1 - i];
    source[source.length - 1 - i] = t;

    i++;
    return reverse(i, source);

}

}

Answer 22

Procedure :

We can use split() to split the string .Then use reverse loop and add the characters.

---

Code snippet:

class test
{
  public static void main(String args[]) 
  {
      String str = "world";
      String[] split= str.split("");

      String revers = "";
      for (int i = split.length-1; i>=0; i--)
      {
        revers += split[i];
      }
      System.out.printf("%s", revers);
   }  
}

 //output : dlrow

---

Answer 23

Sequence of characters (or) String^{String's Family}:

String testString = "Yashwanth@777"; // ~1 1⁄4→D800₁₆«2²⁰

Using Java 8 Stream API

First we convert String into stream by using method CharSequence.chars(), then we use the method IntStream.range to generate a sequential stream of numbers. Then we map this sequence of stream into String.

public static String reverseString_Stream(String str) {
    IntStream cahrStream = str.chars();
    final int[] array = cahrStream.map( x -> x ).toArray();

    int from = 0, upTo = array.length;
    IntFunction<String> reverseMapper = (i) -> ( Character.toString((char) array[ (upTo - i) + (from - 1) ]) );

    String reverseString = IntStream.range(from, upTo) // for (int i = from; i < upTo ; i++) { ... }
            .mapToObj( reverseMapper )                 // array[ lastElement ]
            .collect(Collectors.joining())             // Joining stream of elements together into a String.
            .toString();                               // This object (which is already a string!) is itself returned.

    System.out.println("Reverse Stream as String : "+ reverseString);
    return reverseString;
}

Using a Traditional for Loop

If you want to reverse the string then we need to follow these steps.

• Convert String into an Array of Characters.
• Iterate over an array in reverse order, append each Character to temporary string variable until the last character.

public static String reverseString( String reverse ) {
    if( reverse != null && reverse != "" && reverse.length() > 0 ) {

        char[] arr = reverse.toCharArray();
        String temp = "";
        for( int i = arr.length-1; i >= 0; i-- ) {
            temp += arr[i];
        }
        System.out.println("Reverse String : "+ temp);
    }
    return null;
}

Easy way to Use reverse method provided form StringBuffer or StringBuilder Classes

StringBuilder and StringBuffer are mutable sequence of characters. That means one can change the value of these object's.

StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer(str);
System.out.println("StringBuffer - reverse : "+ buffer.reverse() );

String builderString = (new StringBuilder(str)).reverse().toString;
System.out.println("StringBuilder generated reverse String : "+ builderString  );

StringBuffer has the same methods as the StringBuilder, but each method in StringBuffer is synchronized so it is thread safe.

Answer 24

public static String revString(String str){
    char[] revCharArr = str.toCharArray();
    for (int i=0; i< str.length()/2; i++){
        char f = revCharArr[i];
        char l = revCharArr[str.length()-i-1];
        revCharArr[i] = l;
        revCharArr[str.length()-i-1] = f;
    }
    String revStr = new String(revCharArr);
    return revStr;
}

Answer 25

Simple For loop in java

 public void reverseString(char[] s) {
    int length = s.length;
    for (int i = 0; i < s.length / 2; i++) {
        // swaping character
        char temp = s[length - i - 1];
        s[length - i - 1] = s[i];
        s[i] = temp;
    }
}

Answer 26

The short answer is that Java does not provide a general solution to reversing a String due to the "surrogate pairs" problem, which you have to allow for.

If the requirement is that it is guaranteed to work for all Unicode and in all languages (including Welsh :), then you have to roll your own. Just do an in-place array swap of the string as its code points:

public static String reverse(String str)
{
        // You get what you ask for ;)
        if (str == null) return null;

        // str.length() is equal to the number of unicode code points in a string
        if (str.isEmpty() || str.length() == 1) return str;

        final int[] codePoints = str.codePoints().toArray();
        final int len = codePoints.length;

        // swap in place
        for(int i = 0; i < codePoints.length/2; i++)
        {
            int tmp = codePoints[i];
            codePoints[i] = codePoints[len-i-1];
            codePoints[len-i-1] = tmp;
        }

        return new String(codePoints,0,len);
}

If you do this by using String.getBytes(), then all the bytes will be reversed, which will reverse all UTF-8 encodings, and any attempt using a Character that isn't an int code point will fail with any "astral plane" code points (those outside the BMP).

As a general solution this is reasonably efficient, but it is extremely simple and guaranteed to work for any string, which is probably want you want from a "general solution".

The only gotcha is if you read the String out of a UTF8/16 encoded file, you might have a BOM at the start, but that's outside the scope of the question.

-Blue

Answer 27

Using apache.commons.lang3

StringUtils.reverse(hi)

Answer 28

        String str = "Hello World";

        char[] strCharArr = str.toCharArray();

        for(int i = 0, k= strCharArr.length-1;i != k; i++, k--) {
            char temp = strCharArr[i];
            strCharArr[i] = strCharArr[k];
            strCharArr[k] = temp;
        }

        System.out.println(String.valueOf(strCharArr));

Answer 29

Not yet suggested, you can also concatenate hi to an empty string and reverse it like:

"".concat(hi).reverse()

This is also valid JavaScript.

Answer 30

public static void main(String[] args) {
    String str = "Prashant";
    int len = str.length();
    char[] c = new char[len];
    for (int j = len - 1, i = 0; j >= 0; j--, i++) {
        c[i] = str.charAt(j);
    }
    str = String.copyValueOf(c);
    System.out.println(str);
}

Answer 31

It gets the value you typed and returns it reversed ;)

public static  String reverse (String a){
    char[] rarray = a.toCharArray();
    String finalvalue = "";
    for (int i = 0; i < rarray.length; i++)
    {
        finalvalue += rarray[rarray.length - 1 - i];
    }   
return finalvalue;

}

Answer 32

public String reverseWords(String s) {

    String reversedWords = "";

    if(s.length()<=0) {
        return reversedWords;
    }else if(s.length() == 1){
        if(s == " "){
            return "";
        }
        return s;
    }

    char arr[] = s.toCharArray();
    int j = arr.length-1;
    while(j >= 0 ){
        if( arr[j] == ' '){
            reversedWords+=arr[j];
        }else{
            String temp="";
            while(j>=0 && arr[j] != ' '){
                temp+=arr[j];
                j--;
            }
            j++;
            temp = reverseWord(temp);
            reversedWords+=temp;
        }
        j--;

    }

    String[] chk = reversedWords.split(" ");

    if(chk == null || chk.length == 0){
        return "";
    }

    return reversedWords;



}

public String reverseWord(String s){

    char[] arr = s.toCharArray();

    for(int i=0,j=arr.length-1;i<=j;i++,j--){
        char tmp = arr[i];
        arr[i] = arr[j];
        arr[j] = tmp;
    }
    return String.valueOf(arr);

}

Answer 33

StringBuilder s = new StringBuilder("racecar");
    for (int i = 0, j = s.length() - 1; i < (s.length()/2); i++, j--) {
        char temp = s.charAt(i);
        s.setCharAt(i, s.charAt(j));
        s.setCharAt(j, temp);
    }

    System.out.println(s.toString());

Answer 34

public void reverString(){
System.out.println("Enter value");
BufferedReader br=new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
 try{

  String str=br.readLine();
  char[] charArray=str.toCharArray();
  for(int i=charArray.length-1; i>=0; i--){
   System.out.println(charArray[i]);
  }
  }
   catch(IOException ex){
  }

Answer 35

recursion:

 public String stringReverse(String string) {
    if (string == null || string.length() == 0) {
        return string;
    }
    return stringReverse(string.substring(1)) + string.charAt(0);
 }

Answer 36

There are many ways to reverse a string.

1. Converting String into Bytes: getBytes() method is used to convert the input string into bytes[].

import java.lang.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
class ReverseString{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
    String input = "GeeksforGeeks";
    byte [] strAsByteArray = input.getBytes();
    byte [] result =  new byte [strAsByteArray.length];

    for (int i = 0; i<strAsByteArray.length; i++)
        result[i] = 
         strAsByteArray[strAsByteArray.length-i-1];

    System.out.println(new String(result));
}
}

2.Converting String to character array: The user input the string to be reversed. (Personally suggested)

import java.lang.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;


class ReverseString{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
    String input = "GeeksForGeeks";

    // convert String to character array
    // by using toCharArray
    char[] try1 = input.toCharArray();

    for (int i = try1.length-1; i>=0; i--)
        System.out.print(try1[i]);
}
}

3.Using ArrayList object: Convert the input string into the character array by using toCharArray() built in method. Then, add the characters of the array into the ArrayList object. Java also has built in reverse() method for the Collections class. Since Collections class reverse() method takes a list object , to reverse the list , we will pass the LinkedList object which is a type of list of characters.

import java.lang.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;

 class ReverseString{

public static void main(String[] args)
{
    String input = "Geeks For Geeks";
    char[] hello = input.toCharArray();
    List<Character> trial1 = new ArrayList<>();

    for (char c: hello)
        trial1.add(c);

    Collections.reverse(trial1);
    ListIterator li = trial1.listIterator();
    while (li.hasNext())
        System.out.print(li.next());
}
}