What's the meaning of char zero (0) in Java?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Java string replace and the NUL (NULL, ASCII 0) character?

I'm doing some String algorithms in Java, and i noticed that wherever i include a char with the value of 0 (zero) it marks the end of the String. Like this:

String aString = "I'm a String";
char[] aStringArray = aString.toCharArray();
aStringArray[1] = 0;
System.out.println(new String(aStringArray)); //It outputs "I"

What's the reason/cause of this behaviour?

Null Character: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_character – Eng.Fouad Mar 17 '12 at 20:49 — Eng.Fouad, Mar 17 '12 at 20:49

score 20 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 17 '12 at 21:06

20

The character '\0' is the null character. It's a control character, and it does not terminate the string, that's not how strings work in Java (that's how they work in C, though.)

answered Mar 17 '12 at 21:06

Óscar López

232,561
37
312
386

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 17 '12 at 21:13

For some additional insight, add the following to you code:

 System.out.println(new String(aStringArray).length());
 for (Byte b : new String(aStringArray).getBytes()) {
     System.out.print("["+b+"]"); 
 }

Your rendering system (console or output window) is not displaying everything.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 17 '12 at 21:13

0

I'm wondering if you have posted your actual code. When using the String(byte[]) constructor the actual length of the string is dependent on the contents of the array.

answered Mar 17 '12 at 21:13

M Platvoet

1,679
1
10
14

Not sure I understand. Where are they using the "String(byte[])" constructor? – Scratte Jan 29 '21 at 18:15

What's the meaning of char zero (0) in Java?

3 Answers3

Linked