How to Convert a String to a Character in Java?

Last Updated : 20 Nov, 2024

String and char are fundamental and most commonly used datatypes in Java. A String is not a primitive data type like char. To convert a String to char in Java, we have to perform character-based operations or have to process individual characters.

In this article, we will learn how to convert a String to a char in Java.

Example:

In the below example, we have used the basic method i.e. charAt() method to convert each character in the string to a char array by iterating through the string.

Java

// Java program to convert a String to a Character 
// using the charAt() method

public class StringToChar {
  
    public static void main(String[] args) {
      
        // Declare and initialize a String
        String s = "Java";
        
        // Extract the first character from the String using charAt() method
        char c = s.charAt(0); // Get the character at index 0

        System.out.println("Character at index 0: " + c);
    }
}

Output

Character at index 0: J

Table of Content

Other Methods to Convert a String to a char in Java

Using charAt() in a Loop
Using toCharArray( ) Method
Using substring() Method

Other Methods to Convert a String to a char in Java

There are 3 other methods using which we can convert a String to a char in Java.

1. Using `charAt()` in a Loop

We can use the charAt() method in a loop to extract all characters from a string and then we can store them in a character array.

Java

// Java Program to Convert a String to Character Array 
// Using charAt() in a loop
import java.util.Arrays;

public class StringToChar {
  
    public static void main(String[] args) {
      
        String s = "Java";
        char[] c = new char[s.length()];

        // Extract each character using a loop
        for (int i = 0; i < s.length(); i++) {
            c[i] = s.charAt(i);
        }

        System.out.println("" + Arrays.toString(c));
    }
}

Output

[J, a, v, a]

2. Using toCharArray( ) Method

In this example, the toCharArray() method converts the entire string into a character array. After this, we can extract individual characters.

Example:

Java

// Java Program to convert a String to a char using toCharArray()
import java.io.*;
import java.util.Arrays;

class StringToChar {
  
    public static void main(String[] args) {
      
        // Defining a string
        String s = "Java";

        // Converting the string to a char array
        char[] arr = s.toCharArray();
      
        System.out.println(Arrays.toString(arr));
    }
}

Output

[J, a, v, a]

3. Using substring() Method

We can use the substring() method to extract a single character as a string. Then we can convert it to a char using charAt(0).

Example: