Java String charAt() Method (original) (raw)

Last Updated : 23 Dec, 2024

**String charAt() method in Java **returns the character at the **specified index in a string. The Index of the first character in a string is 0, the second character is 1, and so on. The index value should lie **between 0 and length() – 1.

If the index value is greater than or equal to the string length or negative number it returns stringIndexOutOfBoundsException

**Example 1:

Java `

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

    // Define a string
    String s = "Java String charAt() example";

    // Retrieve and print the character at index 8
    char ch = s.charAt(8);
    System.out.println(ch);

    // Retrieve and print the character at index 24
    ch = s.charAt(24);
    System.out.println(ch);
}

}

**Syntax of charAt() Method

public char charAt(int index__)_

**Parameter: index – Index of the character to be returned.
**Returns: Returns the **character at the specified position.
**Exceptions : StringIndexOutOfBoundsException – If the index is negative or greater than the length of the String.

**Example 2: The following program demonstrating the Exception case as **StringIndexOutOfBoundsException.

Java `

class Geeks { // main function public static void main(String args[]) { String s = "abc";

    char ch = s.charAt(4);
    System.out.println(ch);
}

}

**Output

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: String index out of range: 4
at java.lang.String.charAt(String.java:658)
at Gfg.main(File.java:9)

**Example 3: Accessing the First and Last Character

Java `

import java.io.*;

class Geeks { // main function public static void main(String[] args) { String str = "GeeksforGeeks"; int len = str.length();

    // First Element
    System.out.println("First Element: "+ str.charAt(0));

    // Last Element
    System.out.println("First Element: "+ str.charAt(len - 1));
}

}

Output

First Element: G First Element: s

**Example 4: Print Characters Presented at Odd Positions and Even Positions

Java `

import java.io.*;

class Geeks {

public static void main(String[] args)
{
    String str = "GeeksforGeeks";

    // Odd Positions
    System.out.println("Odd Positions");
    for (int i = 0; i < str.length(); i += 2) {
        System.out.print(str.charAt(i));
    }

    System.out.println("\n");

    // Even Positions
    System.out.println("Even Positions");
    for (int i = 1; i < str.length(); i += 2) {
        System.out.print(str.charAt(i));
    }
}

}

Output

Odd Positions GesoGes

Even Positions ekfrek

**Example 5: Counting Frequency of a Character in a String

Java `

import java.io.*;

class Geeks {

public static void main(String[] args)
{
    String str = "GeeksforGeeks";
    int count = 0;

    for (int i = 0; i < str.length(); i++) {
      
        // Counting e in string
        if (str.charAt(i) == 'e')
            count++;
    }

    // printing occurrence
    System.out.println("Count the occurrence of e : "+ count);
}

}

Output

Count the occurrence of e : 4