StringBuilder in C#

In C#, the string type is immutable. It means a string cannot be changed once created. For example, a new string, “Hello World!” will occupy a memory space on the heap. Now, by changing the initial string “Hello World!” to “Hello World! from InterviewBit” will create a new string object on the memory heap instead of modifying an original string at the same memory address. This behavior would hinder the performance if the original string changed multiple times by replacing, appending, removing, or inserting new strings in the original string.

To solve this problem, C# introduced the StringBuilder in the System.Text namespace. The StringBuilder doesn’t create a new object in the memory but dynamically expands memory to accommodate the modified string.

Creating a new StringBuilder

You can create an object of the StringBuilder class using the new keyword and passing an initial string. The following example demonstrates creating StringBuilder objects.

using System.Text; // include at the top
            
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); //string will be appended later
//or
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("Hello World!");

Optionally, you can also specify the maximum capacity of the StringBuilder object using overloaded constructors.

Retrieve String from StringBuilder

The StringBuilder is not the String. Use the ToString() method to retrieve a string from the StringBuilder object.

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("Hello World!");

String greet = sb.ToString(); //returns "Hello World!"

Add/Append String to StringBuilder

Use the Append() method to append a string at the end of the current StringBuilder object. If a StringBuilder does not contain any string yet, it will add it. The AppendLine() method append a string with the newline character at the end.

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
sb.Append("Hello ");
sb.AppendLine("World!");
sb.AppendLine("Hello C#");
Console.WriteLine(sb);

Output:

Hello World!

Hello C#.

Some other commonly used StringBuilder functions

• StringBuilder.Insert: Inserts a string or object into the specified index of the current StringBuilder.
• StringBuilder.Remove: Removes a specified number of characters from the current StringBuilder.
• StringBuilder.Replace: Replaces a specified character at a specified index.

Task

In the editor below, perform the different tasks as directed.