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Nolan Porter
Nolan Porter

Reputation: 70

Returning words from a string array with symbols between them in java?

public String onGoogleCommand(String[] args) {
    if(args.length == 0){
        return "Type in a question after the google command!";
    }
    if(args.length >= 1){
        return "https://www.google.com/#q=" + args[0] + "+" + args[1] + "+" + args[2];
    }
    return "What?";
}

What I am asking about is the part where I say return "https://www.google.com/#q=" + args[0] + "+" + args[1] + "+" + args[2];. Obviously, this probably isn't the best way to code a search function, but how can I automate this so that the words from the String[] args automatically get put into my return statement with "+" between each of the words so that it would return something like https://www.google.com/#q=please+help+me+with+this+question?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 111

Answers (5)

Adrian Shum
Adrian Shum

Reputation: 40056

Though there is already an accepted answer, I am giving some alternatives:

  1. Java 8 String join

    If you are using Java 8, it already provides a join method that you can make use of:

    return "https://www.google.com/#q=" + String.join("+", args);

    (If you are using Java < 8, there are still lots of similar util you can find, like Commons Lang)

  2. Join with Loop

    It is also not difficult to write a proper and concise loop for this:

    StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder("https://www.google.com/#q=");
boolean first=true;
for (String arg : args) {
    result.append(first? "" : "+").append(arg);
    first = false;
}
return result;

    Yet other form, as someone in comment seems does not like a boolean flag:

    StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
for (String arg : args) {
    result.append(result.length() == 0 ? "https://www.google.com/#q=" : "+")
          .append(arg);
}
return result;

Upvotes: 4

Tim Biegeleisen
Tim Biegeleisen

Reputation: 522032

You could iterate over the args[] array and build your query string:

public String onGoogleCommand(String[] args) {
    if(args == null || args.length == 0) {
        return "Type in a question after the google command!";
    }
    StringBuilder queryString = new StringBuilder("https://www.google.com/#q=");
    queryString.append(args[0]);
    for (int i=1; i < args.length; ++i) {
        queryString.append("+").append(args[i]);
    }

    return queryString.toString();
}

Upvotes: 0

Miguel Angel
Miguel Angel

Reputation: 9

You just need to use a foreach loop, something like this can help:

if(args.length >= 1){
    String finalStr="";
    for(String currentStr:args){
        finalStr+=currentStr+"+";
    }
    finalStr= finalStr.substring(0, finalStr.length()-1);
}

Using this code you will have your search in finalStr, just append it's value to your URL, as you can see the symbol "+" is added after each element and I always remove the last element ("+") because it's unnecessary at the end of the String.

Upvotes: -1

Ashraful Islam
Ashraful Islam

Reputation: 12840

You can use the below method : 

public static String join(String[] array, String separator) {
    if (array == null) {
        return null;
    } else {
        if (separator == null) {
            separator = "";
        }

        if (array.length <= 0) {
            return "";
        } else {
            StringBuilder buf = new StringBuilder(array.length * 16);

            for (int i = 0; i < array.length; ++i) {
                if (i > 0) {
                    buf.append(separator);
                }

                if (array[i] != null) {
                    buf.append(array[i]);
                }
            }

            return buf.toString();
        }
    }
}

It's actually imported from org.apache.commons.lang3; package

Example : 

public static String onGoogleCommand(String[] args) {
    if (args.length == 0) {
        return "Type in a question after the google command!";
    }
    if (args.length >= 1) {
        return "https://www.google.com/#q=" + join(args, "+");
    }
    return "What?";
}

Upvotes: 0

Scary Wombat
Scary Wombat

Reputation: 44854

By using Arrays.toString and replace you can achieve the result you want

String array[] = {"please", "help", "me"};
String output = "https://www.google.com/#q=" + Arrays.toString(array).
                    replace("[", "").
                    replace("]", "").
                    replace(", ", "+");
System.out.println(output);

output

 https://www.google.com/#q=please+help+me

Upvotes: 3

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