Java String length() Method with Examples

Strings in Java are objects that are supported internally by a char array. Since arrays are immutable, and strings are also a type of exceptional array that holds characters, therefore, strings are immutable as well. 

The String class of Java comprises a lot of methods to execute various operations on strings such as compare(), concat(), equals(), split(), length(), replace(), compareTo(), substring() etc. Out of these methods, we will be focusing on the length() method. 

What do you mean by Length or Size of a String?

The length or size of a string means the total number of characters present in it. 

For Example: The string “Geeks For Geeks” has 15 characters (including spaces also).

String.length() method

The Java String length() method is a method that is applicable for string objects. length() method returns the number of characters present in the string. The length() method is suitable for string objects but not for arrays. 

The length() method can also be used for StringBuilder and StringBuffer classes. The length() method is a public member method. Any object of the String class, StringBuilder class, and StringBuffer class can access the length() method using the . (dot) operator.

Method Signature: The method signature of the length() method is as follows –

public int length()  

Return Type: The return type of the length() method is int.

Below are the examples of how to get the length of String in Java using the length() method:

Example 1: Java program to demonstrate how to get the length of String in Java using the length() method

Java

// Java program to illustrate
// how to get the length of String
// in Java using length() method

public class Test {
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        // Here str is a string object
        String str = "GeeksforGeeks";

        System.out.println(
            "The size of "
            + "the String is "
            + str.length());
    }
}

Output

The size of the String is 13

Example 2: Java program to illustrate how to check whether the length of two strings is equal or not using the length() method.

Java

// Java program to illustrate how to check
// whether the length of two strings is
// equal or not using the length() method.

import java.io.*;

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

        String s1 = "abc";
        String s2 = "xyz";

          // storing the length of both the
          // strings in int variables
        int len1 = s1.length();
        int len2 = s2.length();

          // checking whether the length of
          // the strings is equal or not
        if (len1 == len2) {
            System.out.println(
                "The length of both the strings are equal and is " + len1);
        }
        else {
            System.out.println(
                "The length of both the strings are not equal");
        }
    }
}

Output

The length of both the strings are equal and is 3