Convert String to Character Array in Java

General Discussions
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2

If you want a quick way to split a string into an array where each character is a separate element, the easiest way is using split(""). This will break the string at every character and return an array of strings.

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String word = "name";
        String[] letters = word.split("");

        for (String letter : letters) {
            System.out.println(letter);
        }
    }
}

:white_check_mark: Why use this?

  • Quick and built-in—no need to loop manually.
  • Works perfectly for breaking a string into an array of single-character strings.

:rotating_light: When to avoid?

  • If you need a char[] instead of String[], this method won’t work.
  • split("") relies on regex, which might have performance implications for large strings.