Remove last character of a StringBuilder?

When you have to loop through a collection and make a string of each data separated by a delimiter, you always end up with an extra delimiter at the end, e.g.

for (String serverId : serverIds) {
  sb.append(serverId);
   sb.append(",");
}

Gives something like : serverId_1, serverId_2, serverId_3,

I would like to delete the last character in the StringBuilder (without converting it because I still need it after this loop).

Others have pointed out the deleteCharAt method, but here's another alternative approach:

String prefix = "";
for (String serverId : serverIds) {
  sb.append(prefix);
  prefix = ",";
  sb.append(serverId);
}

Alternatively, use the Joiner class from Guava :)

As of Java 8, StringJoiner is part of the standard JRE.

Another simple solution is:

sb.setLength(sb.length() - 1);

A more complicated solution:

The above solution assumes that sb.length() > 0 ... i.e. there is a "last character" to remove. If you can't make that assumption, and/or you can't deal with the exception that would ensue if the assumption is incorrect, then check the StringBuilder's length first; e.g.

// Readable version
if (sb.length() > 0) {
   sb.setLength(sb.length() - 1);
}

// Concise but harder-to-read version of the above.
sb.setLength(Math.max(sb.length() - 1, 0));

if(sb.length() > 0){
    sb.deleteCharAt(sb.length() - 1);
}

As of Java 8, the String class has a static method join. The first argument is a string that you want between each pair of strings, and the second is an Iterable<CharSequence> (which are both interfaces, so something like List<String> works. So you can just do this:

String.join(",", serverIds);

Also in Java 8, you could use the new StringJoiner class, for scenarios where you want to start constructing the string before you have the full list of elements to put in it.

Just get the position of the last character occurrence.

for(String serverId : serverIds) {
 sb.append(serverId);
 sb.append(",");
}
sb.deleteCharAt(sb.lastIndexOf(","));

Since lastIndexOf will perform a reverse search, and you know that it will find at the first try, performance won't be an issue here.

EDIT

Since I keep getting ups on my answer (thanks folks 😊), it is worth regarding that:

On Java 8 onward it would just be more legible and explicit to use StringJoiner. It has one method for a simple separator, and an overload for prefix and suffix.

Examples taken from here: example

Example using simple separator:

    StringJoiner mystring = new StringJoiner("-");    

    // Joining multiple strings by using add() method  
    mystring.add("Logan");  
    mystring.add("Magneto");  
    mystring.add("Rogue");  
    mystring.add("Storm");  

    System.out.println(mystring);

Output:

Logan-Magneto-Rogue-Storm

Example with suffix and prefix:

    StringJoiner mystring = new StringJoiner(",", "(", ")");    

    // Joining multiple strings by using add() method  
    mystring.add("Negan");  
    mystring.add("Rick");  
    mystring.add("Maggie");  
    mystring.add("Daryl");  

    System.out.println(mystring);

Output

(Negan,Rick,Maggie,Daryl)

Remove last character of a StringBuilder?

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