StringBuilder/StringBuffer vs. “+” Operator

Using String concatenation is translated into StringBuilder operations by the compiler.

To see how the compiler is doing I’ll take a sample class, compile it and decompile it with jad to see what’s the generated bytecode.

Original class:

public void method1() {
    System.out.println("The answer is: " + 42);
}

public void method2(int value) {
    System.out.println("The answer is: " + value);
}

public void method3(int value) {
    String a = "The answer is: " + value;
    System.out.println(a + " what is the question ?");
}

The decompiled class:

public void method1()
{
    System.out.println("The answer is: 42");
}

public void method2(int value)
{
    System.out.println((new StringBuilder("The answer is: ")).append(value).toString());
}

public void method3(int value)
{
    String a = (new StringBuilder("The answer is: ")).append(value).toString();
    System.out.println((new StringBuilder(String.valueOf(a))).append(" what is the question ?").toString());
}

• On method1 the compiler performed the operation at compile time.
• On method2 the String concatenation is equivalent to manually use StringBuilder.
• On method3 the String concatenation is definitely bad as the compiler is creating a second StringBuilder rather than reusing the previous one.

So my simple rule is that concatenations are good unless you need to concatenate the result again: for instance in loops or when you need to store an intermediate result.