Converting a character array to a string

Question

Why is the toString method returning jibberish?

char[] arrays = {'a','b','c'};
  { a, b, c }
arrays.toString()
  "[C@6519ceb1"

Yes, I'm not sure why it's doing this. Is this normal or is the toString method not supposed to take arrays? — dukevin, Jan 17 '14 at 03:28
Yes, that's the default `toString()` returned from a char array. Instead do, `System.out.println(java.util.Arrays.toString(arrays));` — Hovercraft Full Of Eels, Jan 17 '14 at 03:29
And `new String(char[])` or `String.valueOf(char[]`) didn't help? — MadProgrammer, Jan 17 '14 at 03:29
possible duplicate of [Why does printing a Java array show a memory location](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14794930/why-does-printing-a-java-array-show-a-memory-location) ([simplest way to print an array in java](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/409784/simplest-way-to-print-an-array-in-java) ) — Brian Roach, Jan 17 '14 at 03:30
@Hover Is there a method that would return "abc" rather than the full array? — dukevin, Jan 17 '14 at 03:31
by the way, if it works, it will not print `abc` which i assume you expect(refering to your question title), it will print `[a, b, c]` — Baby, Jan 17 '14 at 03:32
@KevinDuke If you mean you want to construct a new string from the contents of the character array ... `String` already gives you that http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/lang/String.html#String(char[]) — Brian Roach, Jan 17 '14 at 03:33
@HovercraftFullOfEels Nah, I'm just invisible...I like to haunt here ;) — MadProgrammer, Jan 17 '14 at 03:38

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 17 '14 at 03:31

6

What you are seeing is the string representation of the array object as an Object. (The default behavior of toString() for all objects is to print a representation of the object reference. You cannot override that behavior for arrays.) To get a string representation of the contents of the array, you need to either pass the character array to a String constructor:

char[] arrays = {'a','b','c'};
String s = new String(arrays); // "abc"

or (depending on what you are trying to accomplish) use

String s = java.util.Arrays.toString(arrays); // "[a,b,c]"

answered Jan 17 '14 at 03:31

Ted Hopp

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+1, but shouldn't that be `array` rather than `arrays`? (Despite what OP might have coded?) – Bohemian Jan 17 '14 at 03:36
In that case,he's not getting a string (like a word) he's getting the string interpretation of an array, which doesn't seem like what he wants? – Jan 17 '14 at 03:36
@Bohemian - OP's original code named the array `arrays`; I was just going with that. Personally, I would name such an array something less confusing (like `theArray` or `theChars`). – Ted Hopp Jan 17 '14 at 03:38
@developercorey - I don't know what OP wants, only that he doesn't want the default `toString()` behavior. (Incidentally, using `new String(arrays)` will produce exactly the same output as your code.) – Ted Hopp Jan 17 '14 at 03:38
@Bohemian are you referring to `java.util.Arrays.toString`? I believe it is `arrays` – Baby Jan 17 '14 at 03:42
@RafaEl no, the variable name `char[] arrays` is a stupid name - it's not many arrays, and *an* array, so the better name would be `char[] array`. – Bohemian Jan 17 '14 at 03:59
@Bohemian LOL you are definitely right. but some people doesn't really care about the naming – Baby Jan 17 '14 at 04:03

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 17 '14 at 03:47

char[] arrays = {'a','b','c'};
System.out.println(Arrays.toString(arrays));

This is using java.util.Arrays Implementation can be found

http://grepcode.com/file/repository.grepcode.com/java/root/jdk/openjdk/6-b14/java/util/Arrays.java#Arrays.toString%28java.lang.Object%5B%5D%29

By default it is using Object class's toString implementation

public String toString() {
    return getClass().getName() + "@" + Integer.toHexString(hashCode());
}

Converting a character array to a string

2 Answers2