---
title: Java String length() Method - Scaler Topics
description: This article by Scaler Topics covers the explanation of the internal workings of the String class for calculating the length as well as different examples to understand the String length in Java.
author: Aayush Saini
category: Java
---

:::section{.main}

The `String` class is a non-primitive class that allows us to access many inbuilt methods with the help of the String class object. The `String` class stores immutable characters. The String class uses the inbuilt `length()` method, which is implemented from the `CharSequence` interface to find string length in Java, i.e. the total number of characters present in the string.

### Signature

public int length()

### Return Type

`Integer`—This method returns the string length in Java, which is the total number of characters present in the String object.

### Internal Implementation

The string length in Java refers to the number of characters present in the string. It can be obtained using the `length()` method of the `String` class. The length of a string represents the total count of characters, including spaces and special characters. It is important to note that the length of a string is different from its capacity, which refers to the maximum number of characters that can be stored in the underlying data structure.

public int length() {  
      return value.length;  
  }  

:::

:::section{.main}

## Java String length() Method Examples

### Example 1 - Finding the String Length in Java

class Example {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        String word = "Hello";
        int word_length= word.length(); 
        // length() calculates the number of characters in the word
        System.out.println("The length of the word is " + word_length);
    }
}

**Output:**

The length of the word is 5

---

### Example 2 - Finding the Length of a Character Array

Let's understand how to convert a char array to String format.

class Example {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        char ch[] = { 'H', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o'};
        // Converting the char array to String format.
        String word = new String(ch);
         int word_length= word.length(); 
        // length() calculates the number of characters in the word
        System.out.println("The length of the char array is " + word_length);
    }
}

**Output:**

The length of the char array is 5

**Explanation:** When we pass the char array in the constructor of the String class, it converts all characters of the char array to a String format and returns it. That's why in the variable 'word', we get the String representation of the characters of the char array.

---

### Example 3 - Finding the Length of a String Which Has Whitespaces

class Example {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        String word = "Scaler topics ";
         int word_length= word.length(); 
         // length() calculates the number of characters, including whitespaces
        System.out.println("The length of the word is " + word_length);
    }
}

**Output:**

The length of the word is 14

**Explanation:** The Output is 14 because the length() method includes the whitespace as well as other characters. The representation of the above String in char array is `{'S', 'c', 'a', 'l', 'e', 'r', ' ', 't', 'o', 'p', 'i', 'c', 's',' '} `. Whitespaces are also present in the char array.

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:::section{.summary}

## Conclusion
* The `String` class uses the `length()` method to get the string length in java.
* The public access modifier prefixes the `length()` method.
* The `length()` method also includes the whitespace while calculating the length of the string.

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