Finding the size of a char array in Java

Question

I'm making a calculator and I have converted a String to a char array using

char[] b = inputString.toCharArray();

(inputString is my String variable)

Because the String is an input I don't know how large the array will be. Is there an inbuilt method that allows you to find the number of elements in the array? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You can use b.length to find out how many characters there are.

This is only the number of characters, not indexing, so if you iterate over it with a for loop, remember to write it like this:

for(int i=0;i < b.length; i++)

Note the < (not a <=). It's also important to note that since the array isn't a class, .length isn't a function, so you shouldn't have parenthesis afterward.

Answer 2

Don't listen to any of these guys, here, try this!

static int length(final char[] b) {
  int n = 0;
  while (true) {
    try {
      int t = b[n++];
    } catch (ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException ex) {
      break;
    }
  }
  return n;
}

(Just kidding... try b.length.)