Right way to check if String is empty in Java

Right way to check if String is empty in Java

What do you most of us do while using String in Java? checking whether String is null or empty right? I am sure you know a couple of ways to test whether String is empty or not, but do you know the right way to do it? When we talk about Strings in Java, we can imagine them as arrays of characters, and they are, but in Java, they also object. An empty Java String is considered as the not null String that contains zero characters, meaning its length is 0. However, a Java String that might only contain the white-space character is not considered as empty, it is considered to contain one character and its length is equal to 1. One of the most popular way of checking whether String is empty or not is String class' isEmpty() method, this looks perfect right, it's readable and returns boolean if String is empty otherwise returns false, but the problem is you can not call this method without checking whether String is null or not. In another word, this is not null safe and it will throw NullPointerException if String is null.

How to calculate Sum of Digits using Recursion in Java

This is the second part of our article to solve this coding interview question,  how to find the sum of digits of an integer number in Java. In the first part, we have solved this problem without using recursion i.e. by using a while loop and in this part, we will solve it by using recursion. It's good to know different approaches to solving the same problem, this will help you to do well on coding interviews. While finding a recursive algorithm, always search for a base case, which requires special handling. Once you find the base case, you can easily code the method by delegating rest of processing to the method itself, i.e. by using recursion.  In this problem, the base case is when the number becomes zero, at that time our program is complete and we return the sum of digits of given number. Another property of a recursive algorithm is that with each passing steps your program approaches to result and problems become shorter.

Right way to Compare String in Java

Right way to Compare String in Java

The String is a special class in Java, so is String comparison. When I say comparing String variables, it can be either to compare two String object to check if they are same, i.e. contains same characters or compare them alphabetically to check which comes first or second. In this article, we are going to talk about the right way of comparing String variables, but what is the wrong way? The wrong way is to compare String using == operator. It is one area in which almost every Java programmer  has made mistakes sometimes by comparing two String variable using == operator. Many Java developers are exposed to string comparison very early in their Java journey,  It's often required in their first few programming assignments e.g. write a program to print hello if the user enters "John".  When you first start with String in Java, you create an object using String literal syntax e.g. name = "John" and then compare using == operator, you will get the right answer, but if you take same String as user input, you will not get the correct answer.  Why? because equality operator compares references i.e. if two reference variable points to the same object in the heap then it returns true, otherwise, it returns false.

What is fail safe and fail fast Iterator in Java

What is fail safe and fail fast Iterator in Java?

Java Collections supports two types of Iterator, fail safe and fail fast. The main distinction between a fail-fast and fail-safe Iterator is whether or not the underlying collection can be modified while its begin iterated. If you have used Collection like ArrayList then you know that when you iterate over them, no other thread should modify the collection. If Iterator detects any structural change after iteration has begun e.g adding or removing a new element then it throws ConcurrentModificationException,  this is known as fail-fast behavior and these iterators are called fail-fast

HashSet vs TreeSet in Java ? Similarities and Differences

HashSet vs TreeSet in Java? Similarities and Differences

HashSet and TreeSet both implement same interface i.e  java.util.Set interface and they possess the quality of Set interface means duplicate elements are not allowed. Both HashSet and TreeSet are used for to store unique elements, but HashSet doesn't care about any order and TreeSet keeps a thing in order. Ordering or sorting on TreeSet can be customized by using Comparator interface, by default TreeSet uses elements natural order for sorting, which is defined by compareTo() method of java.lang.Comparable interface. What is the difference between HashSet and TreeSet is is also one the frequently asked Java interview question, So you should know about similarities and difference between them? It also helps you to understand when to use both TreeSet and HashSet and what are the scenario when we should use this sets. Let's go through the similarities and difference between HashSet and TreeSet in Java.