[java] A method to reverse effect of java String.split()?

I am looking for a method to combine an array of strings into a delimited String. An opposite to split().

Wanted to ask the forum before I try writing my own (since the JDK has everything)

I like this better:

public String join(Collection<String> strCollection, String delimiter) {
    String joined = "";
    int noOfItems = 0;
    for (String item : strCollection) {
        joined += item;
        if (++noOfItems < strCollection.size())
            joined += delimiter;
    }
    return joined;
}

It is the neatest solution I have found so far. (Don't worry about the use of raw String objects instead of StringBuilder. Modern Java compilers use StringBuilder anyway, but this code is more readable).

For the sake of completeness, I'd like to add that you cannot reverse String#split in general, as it accepts a regular expression.

"hello__world".split("_+"); Yields ["hello", "world"].
"hello_world".split("_+"); Yields ["hello", "world"].

These yield identical results from a different starting point. splitting is not a one-to-one operation, and is thus non-reversible.

This all being said, if you assume your parameter to be a fixed string, not regex, then you can certainly do this using one of the many posted answers.

There has been an open feature request since at least 2009. The long and short of it is that it will part of the functionality of JDK 8's java.util.StringJoiner class. http://download.java.net/lambda/b81/docs/api/java/util/StringJoiner.html

Here is the Oracle issue if you are interested. http://bugs.sun.com/view_bug.do?bug_id=5015163

Here is an example of the new JDK 8 StringJoiner on an array of String

String[] a = new String[]{"first","second","third"};
StringJoiner sj = new StringJoiner(",");
for(String s:a) sj.add(s);
System.out.println(sj); //first,second,third

A utility method in String makes this even simpler:

String s = String.join(",", stringArray);

If you have an int[], Arrays.toString() is the easiest way.

For Android: in android.text.TextUtils there are methods:

public static String join (CharSequence delimiter, Iterable tokens)
public static String join (CharSequence delimiter, Object[] tokens)

Returns a string containing the tokens joined by delimiters.

tokens -- an array objects to be joined. Strings will be formed from the objects by calling object.toString().

I wrote this one:

public static String join(Collection<String> col, String delim) {
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    Iterator<String> iter = col.iterator();
    if (iter.hasNext())
        sb.append(iter.next());
    while (iter.hasNext()) {
        sb.append(delim);
        sb.append(iter.next());
    }
    return sb.toString();
}

Collection isn't supported by JSP, so for TLD I wrote:

public static String join(List<?> list, String delim) {
    int len = list.size();
    if (len == 0)
        return "";
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(list.get(0).toString());
    for (int i = 1; i < len; i++) {
        sb.append(delim);
        sb.append(list.get(i).toString());
    }
    return sb.toString();
}

and put to .tld file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<taglib version="2.1" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
    <function>
        <name>join</name>
        <function-class>com.core.util.ReportUtil</function-class>
        <function-signature>java.lang.String join(java.util.List, java.lang.String)</function-signature>
    </function>
</taglib>

and use it in JSP files as:

<%@taglib prefix="funnyFmt" uri="tag:com.core.util,2013:funnyFmt"%>
${funnyFmt:join(books, ", ")}

Below code gives a basic idea. This is not best solution though.

public static String splitJoin(String sourceStr, String delim,boolean trim,boolean ignoreEmpty){
    return join(Arrays.asList(sourceStr.split(delim)), delim, ignoreEmpty);
}


public static String join(List<?> list, String delim, boolean ignoreEmpty) {
    int len = list.size();
    if (len == 0)
        return "";
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(list.get(0).toString());
    for (int i = 1; i < len; i++) {
        if (ignoreEmpty && !StringUtils.isBlank(list.get(i).toString())) {
            sb.append(delim);
            sb.append(list.get(i).toString().trim());
        }
    }
    return sb.toString();
}

There's no method in the JDK for this that I'm aware of. Apache Commons Lang has various overloaded join() methods in the StringUtils class that do what you want.

This one is not bad too :

public static String join(String delimitor,String ... subkeys) {
    String result = null;
    if(null!=subkeys && subkeys.length>0) {
        StringBuffer joinBuffer = new StringBuffer(subkeys[0]);
        for(int idx=1;idx<subkeys.length;idx++) {
            joinBuffer.append(delimitor).append(subkeys[idx]);
        }
        result = joinBuffer.toString();
    }
    return result;
}

Since JDK8 I love Streams and Lambdas a lot, so I would suggest:

public static String join( String delimiter, String[] array )
{
    return Arrays.asList( array ).stream().collect( Collectors.joining( delimiter ) );
}

You can sneak this functionality out of the Arrays utility package.

import java.util.Arrays;
...
    String delim = ":",
            csv_record = "Field0:Field1:Field2",
            fields[] = csv_record.split(delim);

    String rebuilt_record = Arrays.toString(fields)
            .replace(", ", delim)
            .replaceAll("[\\[\\]]", "");

If you use jdk8 see @Nathaniel Johnson's answer as that is better.

I think that many of the answer here are complex or not easily read. With branch prediction so efficient why you simply not use a if statement?

public static String join(List<String> fooList){

    if (fooList.isEmpty()) return "";

    StringBuilder sb = null;

    for (String element : fooList) {

        if (sb == null) {
            sb = new StringBuilder();
        } else {
            sb.append(", ");
        }

        sb.append(element);
    }
    return sb.toString();
}

Something that should be mentioned is that Apache uses a simple for loop with an if statement inside it like this (it uses an array as its index to know the first element), and openjdk 8 does the same but in separated methods calls instead of a simple loop.

Google also provides a joiner class in their Google Collections library:

Joiner API

Google Collections

I got the following example here

/*
7) Join Strings using separator >>>AB$#$CD$#$EF

 */

import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;

public class StringUtilsTrial {
  public static void main(String[] args) {

    // Join all Strings in the Array into a Single String, separated by $#$
    System.out.println("7) Join Strings using separator >>>"
        + StringUtils.join(new String[] { "AB", "CD", "EF" }, "$#$"));
  }
}

There are several examples on DZone Snippets if you want to roll your own that works with a Collection. For example:

public static String join(AbstractCollection<String> s, String delimiter) {
    if (s == null || s.isEmpty()) return "";
    Iterator<String> iter = s.iterator();
    StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(iter.next());
    while( iter.hasNext() )
    {
        builder.append(delimiter).append(iter.next());
    }
    return builder.toString();
}

Based on all the previous answers:

public static String join(Iterable<? extends Object> elements, CharSequence separator) 
{
    StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();

    if (elements != null)
    {
        Iterator<? extends Object> iter = elements.iterator();
        if(iter.hasNext())
        {
            builder.append( String.valueOf( iter.next() ) );
            while(iter.hasNext())
            {
                builder
                    .append( separator )
                    .append( String.valueOf( iter.next() ) );
            }
        }
    }

    return builder.toString();
}