[java] Add spaces between the characters of a string in Java?

I just want to add a space between each character of a string. Can anyone help me figuring out how to do this?

E.g. given "JAYARAM", I need "J A Y A R A M" as the result.

This question is related to java string

The answer is


If you use a stringbuilder, it would be efficient to initalize the length when you create the object. Length is going to be 2*lengthofString-1.

Or creating a char array and converting it back to the string would yield the same result.

Aand when you write some code please be sure that you write a few test cases as well, it will make your solution complete.


I am creating a java method for this purpose with dynamic character

public String insertSpace(String myString,int indexno,char myChar){
    myString=myString.substring(0, indexno)+ myChar+myString.substring(indexno);
    System.out.println(myString);
    return myString;
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
    String name = "Harendra";
    System.out.println(String.valueOf(name).replaceAll(".(?!$)", "$0  "));
    System.out.println(String.valueOf(name).replaceAll(".", "$0  "));
}

This gives output as following use any of the above:

H a r e n d r a

H a r e n d r a


I believe what he was looking for was mime code carrier return type code such as %0D%0A (for a Return or line break) and \u00A0 (for spacing) or alternatively $#032


A simple way can be to split the string on each character and join the parts using space as the delimiter.

Demo:

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String s = "JAYARAM";
        s = String.join(" ", s.split(""));
        System.out.println(s);
    }
}

Output:

J A Y A R A M

  • Create a char array from your string
  • Loop through the array, adding a space +" " after each item in the array(except the last one, maybe)
  • BOOM...done!!

This would work for inserting any character any particular position in your String.

public static String insertCharacterForEveryNDistance(int distance, String original, char c){
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    char[] charArrayOfOriginal = original.toCharArray();
    for(int ch = 0 ; ch < charArrayOfOriginal.length ; ch++){
        if(ch % distance == 0)
            sb.append(c).append(charArrayOfOriginal[ch]);
        else
            sb.append(charArrayOfOriginal[ch]);
    }
    return sb.toString();
}

Then call it like this

String result = InsertSpaces.insertCharacterForEveryNDistance(1, "5434567845678965", ' ');
        System.out.println(result);

Create a StringBuilder with the string and use one of its insert overloaded method:

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("JAYARAM");
for (int i=1; i<sb.length(); i+=2)
    sb.insert(i, ' ');
System.out.println(sb.toString());

The above prints:

J A Y A R A M

StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < input.length(); i++) {
   if (i > 0) {
      result.append(" ");
    }

   result.append(input.charAt(i));
}

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

Unless you want to loop through the string and do it "manually" you could solve it like this:

yourString.replace("", " ").trim()

This replaces all "empty substrings" with a space, and then trims off the leading / trailing spaces.

ideone.com demonstration


An alternative solution using regular expressions:

yourString.replaceAll(".(?=.)", "$0 ")

Basically it says "Replace all characters (except the last one) with with the character itself followed by a space".

ideone.com demonstration

Documentation of...


Blow up your String into array of chars, loop over the char array and create a new string by succeeding a char by a space.


Iterate over the characters of the String and while storing in a new array/string you can append one space before appending each character.

Something like this :

StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();

for(int i = 0 ; i < str.length(); i++)
{
   result = result.append(str.charAt(i));
   if(i == str.length()-1)
      break;
   result = result.append(' ');
}

return (result.toString());

This is the same problem as joining together an array with commas. This version correctly produces spaces only between characters, and avoids an unnecessary branch within the loop:

String input = "Hello";
StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
if (input.length() > 0) {
    result.append(input.charAt(0));
    for (int i = 1; i < input.length(); i++) {
        result.append(" ");
        result.append(input.charAt(i));
    }
}