How many times should string concatenation be changed to StringBuilder?

"When concatenation strings in Java, you should use StringBuilder rather than using the + operator on String" "Performance changes are not so when there are few string concatenations, but it is better to use StringBuilder when there are many." I sometimes hear that.

StringBuilder is more efficient than anything else when you actually perform a large number of string concatenations repeatedly, but over there and [here](https:: //qiita.com/ota-meshi/items/40d5dcb0e99574a8a368#stringbuilder%E3%81%A8stringbuffer) has already obtained the verification result, so I will leave it.

However, when actually coding, for example, when you want to enclose a character string with [character string] and display it, there are many cases where the character string concatenation is performed only a few times. In that case, it is useless to create a new instance of StringBuilder, put a character string in it, concatenate the character string only a few times, and then return it to the String type. ..

So how many times should I change to StringBuilder after string concatenation? Even if I googled it, it didn't come out easily, so I checked it myself.

Measurement

The measurement method is

When using the + operator: Declare a character string → combine appropriate character strings n times

PlusTest.java


	public static void main(String[] args) {
		for(int j = 0; j < LOOP; j++){
			String str = "s";
			plus(str, BUILD_NUM);
		}
	}

	private static String plus(String str, int n) {
		for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
			str += "p";
		}
		return str;
	}

When using StringBuilder: Declare a string → Create a StringBuilder instance → Combine appropriate strings n times

StringBuilderTest.java


	public static void main(String[] args) {
		for(int j = 0; j < LOOP; j++){
			String str = "s";
			sb(str, BUILD_NUM);
		}
	}

	private static String sb(String str, int n) {
		StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder().append(str);
		for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
			sb.append("b");
		}
		return sb.toString();
	}

This series of steps is repeated 10 million times, and the time taken is measured. By the way, the measurement is repeated about 10 times to get the median value.

result

0 joins

Once

Twice

3 times

The result was disappointing. By the way, the measurement time of StringBuilder varied considerably, and sometimes 1 time was shorter than 0 times of join (just declared). If the number of couplings increases a few times, it seems that it will fluctuate only within the margin of error. Either way, it's usually faster than using the + operator.

What is the + operator doing in the first place?

When I try to concatenate strings with the + operator, it seems that the compiler creates a StringBuilder instance and concatenates it (Reference). So, "when using the + operator: declare a string-> combine appropriate strings n times" is correctly "declare a string-> (create a StringBuilder instance-> combine) * n". Will be. However, even if it is combined only once, it takes twice as long as the measurement result. Are you creating a string instance in vain?

Conclusion

If you only want to combine once, the compiler will do it for you, so it should be either (rather, it is better to use the + operator because the code is messy), but if you are nervous, it is better to declare StringBuilder and use it. I feel like. If you're spinning more than once in a loop, it's better to use StringBuilder to reduce unnecessary StringBuilder declarations.

[^ 1]: It's an unreliable number because I only got either 0ms or 16ms, but I'm ignoring it because I'm just measuring the time of the code that just wastes the for statement in the first place.

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