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String.format(...) help...?
I've been using the format(..) method from the Formatter class as a Static method as shown. I can't figure out why I can do that. In other words, I don't see the connection between the String class and the Formatter class that allows me to do that.
Interesting. I found out that I had been consulting an early version of Java in which the String class does NOT have a format(..) method:
http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.4.2/docs/api/j...
After your answer I went to the Oracle Java Tutorials site and searched for string and found that newer versions of Java String does have the method.
http://download.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/...
Thanks. I thought that there was something that I didn't understand about the basic heirarchy of classes, etc.
As soon as I can I'll rate your answer.
1 Answer
- husoskiLv 710 years agoFavorite Answer
format() is a static method of the String class, and produces a String result. It uses a Formatter object, which has a different format() method. The Formatter method is not static and writes its output into the Formatter objects destination, either a StringBuilder/StringBuffer object or some kind of stream or writer.
The static String.format() method makes sense as a kind of "factory method" for producing string objects. Internally, it likely uses a Formatter object to create a StringBuilder object. The result you see would then from a toString() call on the StringBuilder object to get the result as a String. That dance is required because Strings are immutable.
