Character

public final class Character
extends Object implements Serializable, Comparable<Character>

java.lang.Object
   ↳ java.lang.Character


The Character class wraps a value of the primitive type char in an object. An object of class Character contains a single field whose type is char.

In addition, this class provides several methods for determining a character's category (lowercase letter, digit, etc.) and for converting characters from uppercase to lowercase and vice versa.

Character information is based on the Unicode Standard

The methods and data of class Character are defined by the information in the UnicodeData file that is part of the Unicode Character Database maintained by the Unicode Consortium. This file specifies various properties including name and general category for every defined Unicode code point or character range.

The file and its description are available from the Unicode Consortium at:

Unicode Conformance

The fields and methods of class Character are defined in terms of character information from the Unicode Standard, specifically the UnicodeData file that is part of the Unicode Character Database. This file specifies properties including name and category for every assigned Unicode code point or character range. The file is available from the Unicode Consortium at http://www.unicode.org.

Character information is based on the Unicode Standard, version 13.0.

The Java platform has supported different versions of the Unicode Standard over time. Upgrades to newer versions of the Unicode Standard occurred in the following Java releases, each indicating the new version:

Shows Java releases and supported Unicode versions
Java release Unicode version
Java SE 15 Unicode 13.0
Java SE 13 Unicode 12.1
Java SE 12 Unicode 11.0
Java SE 11 Unicode 10.0
Java SE 9 Unicode 8.0
Java SE 8 Unicode 6.2
Java SE 7 Unicode 6.0
Java SE 5.0 Unicode 4.0
Java SE 1.4 Unicode 3.0
JDK 1.1 Unicode 2.0
JDK 1.0.2 Unicode 1.1.5
Variations from these base Unicode versions, such as recognized appendixes, are documented elsewhere.

Unicode Character Representations

The char data type (and therefore the value that a Character object encapsulates) are based on the original Unicode specification, which defined characters as fixed-width 16-bit entities. The Unicode Standard has since been changed to allow for characters whose representation requires more than 16 bits. The range of legal code points is now U+0000 to U+10FFFF, known as Unicode scalar value. (Refer to the definition of the U+n notation in the Unicode Standard.)

The set of characters from U+0000 to U+FFFF is sometimes referred to as the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP). Characters whose code points are greater than U+FFFF are called supplementary characters. The Java platform uses the UTF-16 representation in char arrays and in the String and StringBuffer classes. In this representation, supplementary characters are represented as a pair of char values, the first from the high-surrogates range, (\uD800-\uDBFF), the second from the low-surrogates range (\uDC00-\uDFFF).

A char value, therefore, represents Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP) code points, including the surrogate code points, or code units of the UTF-16 encoding. An int value represents all Unicode code points, including supplementary code points. The lower (least significant) 21 bits of int are used to represent Unicode code points and the upper (most significant) 11 bits must be zero. Unless otherwise specified, the behavior with respect to supplementary characters and surrogate char values is as follows:

  • The methods that only accept a char value cannot support supplementary characters. They treat char values from the surrogate ranges as undefined characters. For example, Character.isLetter('\uD840') returns false, even though this specific value if followed by any low-surrogate value in a string would represent a letter.
  • The methods that accept an int value support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters. For example, Character.isLetter(0x2F81A) returns true because the code point value represents a letter (a CJK ideograph).

In the Java SE API documentation, Unicode code point is used for character values in the range between U+0000 and U+10FFFF, and Unicode code unit is used for 16-bit char values that are code units of the UTF-16 encoding. For more information on Unicode terminology, refer to the Unicode Glossary.

Summary

Nested classes

class Character.Subset

Instances of this class represent particular subsets of the Unicode character set. 

class Character.UnicodeBlock

A family of character subsets representing the character blocks in the Unicode specification. 

Constants

int BYTES

The number of bytes used to represent a char value in unsigned binary form.

byte COMBINING_SPACING_MARK

General category "Mc" in the Unicode specification.

byte CONNECTOR_PUNCTUATION

General category "Pc" in the Unicode specification.

byte CONTROL

General category "Cc" in the Unicode specification.

byte CURRENCY_SYMBOL

General category "Sc" in the Unicode specification.

byte DASH_PUNCTUATION

General category "Pd" in the Unicode specification.

byte DECIMAL_DIGIT_NUMBER

General category "Nd" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_ARABIC_NUMBER

Weak bidirectional character type "AN" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_BOUNDARY_NEUTRAL

Weak bidirectional character type "BN" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_COMMON_NUMBER_SEPARATOR

Weak bidirectional character type "CS" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_EUROPEAN_NUMBER

Weak bidirectional character type "EN" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_EUROPEAN_NUMBER_SEPARATOR

Weak bidirectional character type "ES" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_EUROPEAN_NUMBER_TERMINATOR

Weak bidirectional character type "ET" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_FIRST_STRONG_ISOLATE

Weak bidirectional character type "FSI" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_LEFT_TO_RIGHT

Strong bidirectional character type "L" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_LEFT_TO_RIGHT_EMBEDDING

Strong bidirectional character type "LRE" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_LEFT_TO_RIGHT_ISOLATE

Weak bidirectional character type "LRI" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_LEFT_TO_RIGHT_OVERRIDE

Strong bidirectional character type "LRO" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_NONSPACING_MARK

Weak bidirectional character type "NSM" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_OTHER_NEUTRALS

Neutral bidirectional character type "ON" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_PARAGRAPH_SEPARATOR

Neutral bidirectional character type "B" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_POP_DIRECTIONAL_FORMAT

Weak bidirectional character type "PDF" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_POP_DIRECTIONAL_ISOLATE

Weak bidirectional character type "PDI" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_RIGHT_TO_LEFT

Strong bidirectional character type "R" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_RIGHT_TO_LEFT_ARABIC

Strong bidirectional character type "AL" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_RIGHT_TO_LEFT_EMBEDDING

Strong bidirectional character type "RLE" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_RIGHT_TO_LEFT_ISOLATE

Weak bidirectional character type "RLI" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_RIGHT_TO_LEFT_OVERRIDE

Strong bidirectional character type "RLO" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_SEGMENT_SEPARATOR

Neutral bidirectional character type "S" in the Unicode specification.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_UNDEFINED

Undefined bidirectional character type.

byte DIRECTIONALITY_WHITESPACE

Neutral bidirectional character type "WS" in the Unicode specification.

byte ENCLOSING_MARK

General category "Me" in the Unicode specification.

byte END_PUNCTUATION

General category "Pe" in the Unicode specification.

byte FINAL_QUOTE_PUNCTUATION

General category "Pf" in the Unicode specification.

byte FORMAT

General category "Cf" in the Unicode specification.

byte INITIAL_QUOTE_PUNCTUATION

General category "Pi" in the Unicode specification.

byte LETTER_NUMBER

General category "Nl" in the Unicode specification.

byte LINE_SEPARATOR

General category "Zl" in the Unicode specification.

byte LOWERCASE_LETTER

General category "Ll" in the Unicode specification.

byte MATH_SYMBOL

General category "Sm" in the Unicode specification.

int MAX_CODE_POINT

The maximum value of a Unicode code point, constant U+10FFFF.

char MAX_HIGH_SURROGATE

The maximum value of a Unicode high-surrogate code unit in the UTF-16 encoding, constant '\uDBFF'.

char MAX_LOW_SURROGATE

The maximum value of a Unicode low-surrogate code unit in the UTF-16 encoding, constant '\uDFFF'.

int MAX_RADIX

The maximum radix available for conversion to and from strings.

char MAX_SURROGATE

The maximum value of a Unicode surrogate code unit in the UTF-16 encoding, constant '\uDFFF'.

char MAX_VALUE

The constant value of this field is the largest value of type char, '\uFFFF'.

int MIN_CODE_POINT

The minimum value of a Unicode code point, constant U+0000.

char MIN_HIGH_SURROGATE

The minimum value of a Unicode high-surrogate code unit in the UTF-16 encoding, constant '\uD800'.

char MIN_LOW_SURROGATE

The minimum value of a Unicode low-surrogate code unit in the UTF-16 encoding, constant '\uDC00'.

int MIN_RADIX

The minimum radix available for conversion to and from strings.

int MIN_SUPPLEMENTARY_CODE_POINT

The minimum value of a Unicode supplementary code point, constant U+10000.

char MIN_SURROGATE

The minimum value of a Unicode surrogate code unit in the UTF-16 encoding, constant '\uD800'.

char MIN_VALUE

The constant value of this field is the smallest value of type char, '\u0000'.

byte MODIFIER_LETTER

General category "Lm" in the Unicode specification.

byte MODIFIER_SYMBOL

General category "Sk" in the Unicode specification.

byte NON_SPACING_MARK

General category "Mn" in the Unicode specification.

byte OTHER_LETTER

General category "Lo" in the Unicode specification.

byte OTHER_NUMBER

General category "No" in the Unicode specification.

byte OTHER_PUNCTUATION

General category "Po" in the Unicode specification.

byte OTHER_SYMBOL

General category "So" in the Unicode specification.

byte PARAGRAPH_SEPARATOR

General category "Zp" in the Unicode specification.

byte PRIVATE_USE

General category "Co" in the Unicode specification.

int SIZE

The number of bits used to represent a char value in unsigned binary form, constant 16.

byte SPACE_SEPARATOR

General category "Zs" in the Unicode specification.

byte START_PUNCTUATION

General category "Ps" in the Unicode specification.

byte SURROGATE

General category "Cs" in the Unicode specification.

byte TITLECASE_LETTER

General category "Lt" in the Unicode specification.

byte UNASSIGNED

General category "Cn" in the Unicode specification.

byte UPPERCASE_LETTER

General category "Lu" in the Unicode specification.

Fields

public static final Class<Character> TYPE

The Class instance representing the primitive type char.

Public constructors

Character(char value)

This constructor is deprecated. It is rarely appropriate to use this constructor. The static factory valueOf(char) is generally a better choice, as it is likely to yield significantly better space and time performance.

Public methods

static int charCount(int codePoint)

Determines the number of char values needed to represent the specified character (Unicode code point).

char charValue()

Returns the value of this Character object.

static int codePointAt(char[] a, int index, int limit)

Returns the code point at the given index of the char array, where only array elements with index less than limit can be used.

static int codePointAt(char[] a, int index)

Returns the code point at the given index of the char array.

static int codePointAt(CharSequence seq, int index)

Returns the code point at the given index of the CharSequence.

static int codePointBefore(char[] a, int index)

Returns the code point preceding the given index of the char array.

static int codePointBefore(CharSequence seq, int index)

Returns the code point preceding the given index of the CharSequence.

static int codePointBefore(char[] a, int index, int start)

Returns the code point preceding the given index of the char array, where only array elements with index greater than or equal to start can be used.

static int codePointCount(CharSequence seq, int beginIndex, int endIndex)

Returns the number of Unicode code points in the text range of the specified char sequence.

static int codePointCount(char[] a, int offset, int count)

Returns the number of Unicode code points in a subarray of the char array argument.

static int codePointOf(String name)

Returns the code point value of the Unicode character specified by the given Unicode character name.

static int compare(char x, char y)

Compares two char values numerically.

int compareTo(Character anotherCharacter)

Compares two Character objects numerically.

static int digit(int codePoint, int radix)

Returns the numeric value of the specified character (Unicode code point) in the specified radix.

static int digit(char ch, int radix)

Returns the numeric value of the character ch in the specified radix.

boolean equals(Object obj)

Compares this object against the specified object.

static char forDigit(int digit, int radix)

Determines the character representation for a specific digit in the specified radix.

static byte getDirectionality(char ch)

Returns the Unicode directionality property for the given character.

static byte getDirectionality(int codePoint)

Returns the Unicode directionality property for the given character (Unicode code point).

static String getName(int codePoint)

Returns the Unicode name of the specified character codePoint, or null if the code point is unassigned.

static int getNumericValue(int codePoint)

Returns the int value that the specified character (Unicode code point) represents.

static int getNumericValue(char ch)

Returns the int value that the specified Unicode character represents.

static int getType(char ch)

Returns a value indicating a character's general category.

static int getType(int codePoint)

Returns a value indicating a character's general category.

static int hashCode(char value)

Returns a hash code for a char value; compatible with Character.hashCode().

int hashCode()

Returns a hash code for this Character; equal to the result of invoking charValue().

static char highSurrogate(int codePoint)

Returns the leading surrogate (a high surrogate code unit) of the surrogate pair representing the specified supplementary character (Unicode code point) in the UTF-16 encoding.

static boolean isAlphabetic(int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is alphabetic.

static boolean isBmpCodePoint(int codePoint)

Determines whether the specified character (Unicode code point) is in the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP).

static boolean isDefined(int codePoint)

Determines if a character (Unicode code point) is defined in Unicode.

static boolean isDefined(char ch)

Determines if a character is defined in Unicode.

static boolean isDigit(char ch)

Determines if the specified character is a digit.

static boolean isDigit(int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is a digit.

static boolean isHighSurrogate(char ch)

Determines if the given char value is a Unicode high-surrogate code unit (also known as leading-surrogate code unit).

static boolean isISOControl(char ch)

Determines if the specified character is an ISO control character.

static boolean isISOControl(int codePoint)

Determines if the referenced character (Unicode code point) is an ISO control character.

static boolean isIdentifierIgnorable(char ch)

Determines if the specified character should be regarded as an ignorable character in a Java identifier or a Unicode identifier.

static boolean isIdentifierIgnorable(int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) should be regarded as an ignorable character in a Java identifier or a Unicode identifier.

static boolean isIdeographic(int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is a CJKV (Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese) ideograph, as defined by the Unicode Standard.

static boolean isJavaIdentifierPart(char ch)

Determines if the specified character may be part of a Java identifier as other than the first character.

static boolean isJavaIdentifierPart(int codePoint)

Determines if the character (Unicode code point) may be part of a Java identifier as other than the first character.

static boolean isJavaIdentifierStart(int codePoint)

Determines if the character (Unicode code point) is permissible as the first character in a Java identifier.

static boolean isJavaIdentifierStart(char ch)

Determines if the specified character is permissible as the first character in a Java identifier.

static boolean isJavaLetter(char ch)

This method was deprecated in API level 15. Replaced by isJavaIdentifierStart(char).

static boolean isJavaLetterOrDigit(char ch)

This method was deprecated in API level 15. Replaced by isJavaIdentifierPart(char).

static boolean isLetter(char ch)

Determines if the specified character is a letter.

static boolean isLetter(int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is a letter.

static boolean isLetterOrDigit(char ch)

Determines if the specified character is a letter or digit.

static boolean isLetterOrDigit(int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is a letter or digit.

static boolean isLowSurrogate(char ch)

Determines if the given char value is a Unicode low-surrogate code unit (also known as trailing-surrogate code unit).

static boolean isLowerCase(char ch)

Determines if the specified character is a lowercase character.

static boolean isLowerCase(int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is a lowercase character.

static boolean isMirrored(int codePoint)

Determines whether the specified character (Unicode code point) is mirrored according to the Unicode specification.

static boolean isMirrored(char ch)

Determines whether the character is mirrored according to the Unicode specification.

static boolean isSpace(char ch)

This method was deprecated in API level 15. Replaced by isWhitespace(char).

static boolean isSpaceChar(char ch)

Determines if the specified character is a Unicode space character.

static boolean isSpaceChar(int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is a Unicode space character.

static boolean isSupplementaryCodePoint(int codePoint)

Determines whether the specified character (Unicode code point) is in the supplementary character range.

static boolean isSurrogate(char ch)

Determines if the given char value is a Unicode surrogate code unit.

static boolean isSurrogatePair(char high, char low)

Determines whether the specified pair of char values is a valid Unicode surrogate pair.

static boolean isTitleCase(int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is a titlecase character.

static boolean isTitleCase(char ch)

Determines if the specified character is a titlecase character.

static boolean isUnicodeIdentifierPart(int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) may be part of a Unicode identifier as other than the first character.

static boolean isUnicodeIdentifierPart(char ch)

Determines if the specified character may be part of a Unicode identifier as other than the first character.

static boolean isUnicodeIdentifierStart(int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is permissible as the first character in a Unicode identifier.

static boolean isUnicodeIdentifierStart(char ch)

Determines if the specified character is permissible as the first character in a Unicode identifier.

static boolean isUpperCase(char ch)

Determines if the specified character is an uppercase character.

static boolean isUpperCase(int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is an uppercase character.

static boolean isValidCodePoint(int codePoint)

Determines whether the specified code point is a valid Unicode code point value.

static boolean isWhitespace(int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is white space according to Java.

static boolean isWhitespace(char ch)

Determines if the specified character is white space according to Java.

static char lowSurrogate(int codePoint)

Returns the trailing surrogate (a low surrogate code unit) of the surrogate pair representing the specified supplementary character (Unicode code point) in the UTF-16 encoding.

static int offsetByCodePoints(CharSequence seq, int index, int codePointOffset)

Returns the index within the given char sequence that is offset from the given index by codePointOffset code points.

static int offsetByCodePoints(char[] a, int start, int count, int index, int codePointOffset)

Returns the index within the given char subarray that is offset from the given index by codePointOffset code points.

static char reverseBytes(char ch)

Returns the value obtained by reversing the order of the bytes in the specified char value.

static int toChars(int codePoint, char[] dst, int dstIndex)

Converts the specified character (Unicode code point) to its UTF-16 representation.

static char[] toChars(int codePoint)

Converts the specified character (Unicode code point) to its UTF-16 representation stored in a char array.

static int toCodePoint(char high, char low)

Converts the specified surrogate pair to its supplementary code point value.

static int toLowerCase(int codePoint)

Converts the character (Unicode code point) argument to lowercase using case mapping information from the UnicodeData file.

static char toLowerCase(char ch)

Converts the character argument to lowercase using case mapping information from the UnicodeData file.

String toString()

Returns a String object representing this Character's value.

static String toString(char c)

Returns a String object representing the specified char.

static String toString(int codePoint)

Returns a String object representing the specified character (Unicode code point).

static char toTitleCase(char ch)

Converts the character argument to titlecase using case mapping information from the UnicodeData file.

static int toTitleCase(int codePoint)

Converts the character (Unicode code point) argument to titlecase using case mapping information from the UnicodeData file.

static char toUpperCase(char ch)

Converts the character argument to uppercase using case mapping information from the UnicodeData file.

static int toUpperCase(int codePoint)

Converts the character (Unicode code point) argument to uppercase using case mapping information from the UnicodeData file.

static Character valueOf(char c)

Returns a Character instance representing the specified char value.

Inherited methods

Constants

BYTES

Added in API level 24
public static final int BYTES

The number of bytes used to represent a char value in unsigned binary form.

Constant Value: 2 (0x00000002)

COMBINING_SPACING_MARK

Added in API level 1
public static final byte COMBINING_SPACING_MARK

General category "Mc" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 8 (0x00000008)

CONNECTOR_PUNCTUATION

Added in API level 1
public static final byte CONNECTOR_PUNCTUATION

General category "Pc" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 23 (0x00000017)

CONTROL

Added in API level 1
public static final byte CONTROL

General category "Cc" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 15 (0x0000000f)

CURRENCY_SYMBOL

Added in API level 1
public static final byte CURRENCY_SYMBOL

General category "Sc" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 26 (0x0000001a)

DASH_PUNCTUATION

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DASH_PUNCTUATION

General category "Pd" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 20 (0x00000014)

DECIMAL_DIGIT_NUMBER

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DECIMAL_DIGIT_NUMBER

General category "Nd" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 9 (0x00000009)

DIRECTIONALITY_ARABIC_NUMBER

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_ARABIC_NUMBER

Weak bidirectional character type "AN" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 6 (0x00000006)

DIRECTIONALITY_BOUNDARY_NEUTRAL

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_BOUNDARY_NEUTRAL

Weak bidirectional character type "BN" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 9 (0x00000009)

DIRECTIONALITY_COMMON_NUMBER_SEPARATOR

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_COMMON_NUMBER_SEPARATOR

Weak bidirectional character type "CS" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 7 (0x00000007)

DIRECTIONALITY_EUROPEAN_NUMBER

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_EUROPEAN_NUMBER

Weak bidirectional character type "EN" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 3 (0x00000003)

DIRECTIONALITY_EUROPEAN_NUMBER_SEPARATOR

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_EUROPEAN_NUMBER_SEPARATOR

Weak bidirectional character type "ES" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 4 (0x00000004)

DIRECTIONALITY_EUROPEAN_NUMBER_TERMINATOR

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_EUROPEAN_NUMBER_TERMINATOR

Weak bidirectional character type "ET" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 5 (0x00000005)

DIRECTIONALITY_FIRST_STRONG_ISOLATE

Added in API level 34
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_FIRST_STRONG_ISOLATE

Weak bidirectional character type "FSI" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 21 (0x00000015)

DIRECTIONALITY_LEFT_TO_RIGHT

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_LEFT_TO_RIGHT

Strong bidirectional character type "L" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 0 (0x00000000)

DIRECTIONALITY_LEFT_TO_RIGHT_EMBEDDING

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_LEFT_TO_RIGHT_EMBEDDING

Strong bidirectional character type "LRE" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 14 (0x0000000e)

DIRECTIONALITY_LEFT_TO_RIGHT_ISOLATE

Added in API level 34
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_LEFT_TO_RIGHT_ISOLATE

Weak bidirectional character type "LRI" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 19 (0x00000013)

DIRECTIONALITY_LEFT_TO_RIGHT_OVERRIDE

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_LEFT_TO_RIGHT_OVERRIDE

Strong bidirectional character type "LRO" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 15 (0x0000000f)

DIRECTIONALITY_NONSPACING_MARK

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_NONSPACING_MARK

Weak bidirectional character type "NSM" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 8 (0x00000008)

DIRECTIONALITY_OTHER_NEUTRALS

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_OTHER_NEUTRALS

Neutral bidirectional character type "ON" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 13 (0x0000000d)

DIRECTIONALITY_PARAGRAPH_SEPARATOR

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_PARAGRAPH_SEPARATOR

Neutral bidirectional character type "B" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 10 (0x0000000a)

DIRECTIONALITY_POP_DIRECTIONAL_FORMAT

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_POP_DIRECTIONAL_FORMAT

Weak bidirectional character type "PDF" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 18 (0x00000012)

DIRECTIONALITY_POP_DIRECTIONAL_ISOLATE

Added in API level 34
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_POP_DIRECTIONAL_ISOLATE

Weak bidirectional character type "PDI" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 22 (0x00000016)

DIRECTIONALITY_RIGHT_TO_LEFT

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_RIGHT_TO_LEFT

Strong bidirectional character type "R" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 1 (0x00000001)

DIRECTIONALITY_RIGHT_TO_LEFT_ARABIC

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_RIGHT_TO_LEFT_ARABIC

Strong bidirectional character type "AL" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 2 (0x00000002)

DIRECTIONALITY_RIGHT_TO_LEFT_EMBEDDING

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_RIGHT_TO_LEFT_EMBEDDING

Strong bidirectional character type "RLE" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 16 (0x00000010)

DIRECTIONALITY_RIGHT_TO_LEFT_ISOLATE

Added in API level 34
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_RIGHT_TO_LEFT_ISOLATE

Weak bidirectional character type "RLI" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 20 (0x00000014)

DIRECTIONALITY_RIGHT_TO_LEFT_OVERRIDE

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_RIGHT_TO_LEFT_OVERRIDE

Strong bidirectional character type "RLO" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 17 (0x00000011)

DIRECTIONALITY_SEGMENT_SEPARATOR

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_SEGMENT_SEPARATOR

Neutral bidirectional character type "S" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 11 (0x0000000b)

DIRECTIONALITY_UNDEFINED

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_UNDEFINED

Undefined bidirectional character type. Undefined char values have undefined directionality in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: -1 (0xffffffff)

DIRECTIONALITY_WHITESPACE

Added in API level 1
public static final byte DIRECTIONALITY_WHITESPACE

Neutral bidirectional character type "WS" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 12 (0x0000000c)

ENCLOSING_MARK

Added in API level 1
public static final byte ENCLOSING_MARK

General category "Me" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 7 (0x00000007)

END_PUNCTUATION

Added in API level 1
public static final byte END_PUNCTUATION

General category "Pe" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 22 (0x00000016)

FINAL_QUOTE_PUNCTUATION

Added in API level 1
public static final byte FINAL_QUOTE_PUNCTUATION

General category "Pf" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 30 (0x0000001e)

FORMAT

Added in API level 1
public static final byte FORMAT

General category "Cf" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 16 (0x00000010)

INITIAL_QUOTE_PUNCTUATION

Added in API level 1
public static final byte INITIAL_QUOTE_PUNCTUATION

General category "Pi" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 29 (0x0000001d)

LETTER_NUMBER

Added in API level 1
public static final byte LETTER_NUMBER

General category "Nl" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 10 (0x0000000a)

LINE_SEPARATOR

Added in API level 1
public static final byte LINE_SEPARATOR

General category "Zl" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 13 (0x0000000d)

LOWERCASE_LETTER

Added in API level 1
public static final byte LOWERCASE_LETTER

General category "Ll" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 2 (0x00000002)

MATH_SYMBOL

Added in API level 1
public static final byte MATH_SYMBOL

General category "Sm" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 25 (0x00000019)

MAX_CODE_POINT

Added in API level 1
public static final int MAX_CODE_POINT

The maximum value of a Unicode code point, constant U+10FFFF.

Constant Value: 1114111 (0x0010ffff)

MAX_HIGH_SURROGATE

Added in API level 1
public static final char MAX_HIGH_SURROGATE

The maximum value of a Unicode high-surrogate code unit in the UTF-16 encoding, constant '\uDBFF'. A high-surrogate is also known as a leading-surrogate.

Constant Value: 56319 (0x0000dbff)

MAX_LOW_SURROGATE

Added in API level 1
public static final char MAX_LOW_SURROGATE

The maximum value of a Unicode low-surrogate code unit in the UTF-16 encoding, constant '\uDFFF'. A low-surrogate is also known as a trailing-surrogate.

Constant Value: 57343 (0x0000dfff)

MAX_RADIX

Added in API level 1
public static final int MAX_RADIX

The maximum radix available for conversion to and from strings. The constant value of this field is the largest value permitted for the radix argument in radix-conversion methods such as the digit method, the forDigit method, and the toString method of class Integer.

Constant Value: 36 (0x00000024)

MAX_SURROGATE

Added in API level 1
public static final char MAX_SURROGATE

The maximum value of a Unicode surrogate code unit in the UTF-16 encoding, constant '\uDFFF'.

Constant Value: 57343 (0x0000dfff)

MAX_VALUE

Added in API level 1
public static final char MAX_VALUE

The constant value of this field is the largest value of type char, '\uFFFF'.

Constant Value: 65535 (0x0000ffff)

MIN_CODE_POINT

Added in API level 1
public static final int MIN_CODE_POINT

The minimum value of a Unicode code point, constant U+0000.

Constant Value: 0 (0x00000000)

MIN_HIGH_SURROGATE

Added in API level 1
public static final char MIN_HIGH_SURROGATE

The minimum value of a Unicode high-surrogate code unit in the UTF-16 encoding, constant '\uD800'. A high-surrogate is also known as a leading-surrogate.

Constant Value: 55296 (0x0000d800)

MIN_LOW_SURROGATE

Added in API level 1
public static final char MIN_LOW_SURROGATE

The minimum value of a Unicode low-surrogate code unit in the UTF-16 encoding, constant '\uDC00'. A low-surrogate is also known as a trailing-surrogate.

Constant Value: 56320 (0x0000dc00)

MIN_RADIX

Added in API level 1
public static final int MIN_RADIX

The minimum radix available for conversion to and from strings. The constant value of this field is the smallest value permitted for the radix argument in radix-conversion methods such as the digit method, the forDigit method, and the toString method of class Integer.

Constant Value: 2 (0x00000002)

MIN_SUPPLEMENTARY_CODE_POINT

Added in API level 1
public static final int MIN_SUPPLEMENTARY_CODE_POINT

The minimum value of a Unicode supplementary code point, constant U+10000.

Constant Value: 65536 (0x00010000)

MIN_SURROGATE

Added in API level 1
public static final char MIN_SURROGATE

The minimum value of a Unicode surrogate code unit in the UTF-16 encoding, constant '\uD800'.

Constant Value: 55296 (0x0000d800)

MIN_VALUE

Added in API level 1
public static final char MIN_VALUE

The constant value of this field is the smallest value of type char, '\u0000'.

Constant Value: 0 (0x00000000)

MODIFIER_LETTER

Added in API level 1
public static final byte MODIFIER_LETTER

General category "Lm" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 4 (0x00000004)

MODIFIER_SYMBOL

Added in API level 1
public static final byte MODIFIER_SYMBOL

General category "Sk" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 27 (0x0000001b)

NON_SPACING_MARK

Added in API level 1
public static final byte NON_SPACING_MARK

General category "Mn" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 6 (0x00000006)

OTHER_LETTER

Added in API level 1
public static final byte OTHER_LETTER

General category "Lo" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 5 (0x00000005)

OTHER_NUMBER

Added in API level 1
public static final byte OTHER_NUMBER

General category "No" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 11 (0x0000000b)

OTHER_PUNCTUATION

Added in API level 1
public static final byte OTHER_PUNCTUATION

General category "Po" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 24 (0x00000018)

OTHER_SYMBOL

Added in API level 1
public static final byte OTHER_SYMBOL

General category "So" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 28 (0x0000001c)

PARAGRAPH_SEPARATOR

Added in API level 1
public static final byte PARAGRAPH_SEPARATOR

General category "Zp" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 14 (0x0000000e)

PRIVATE_USE

Added in API level 1
public static final byte PRIVATE_USE

General category "Co" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 18 (0x00000012)

SIZE

Added in API level 1
public static final int SIZE

The number of bits used to represent a char value in unsigned binary form, constant 16.

Constant Value: 16 (0x00000010)

SPACE_SEPARATOR

Added in API level 1
public static final byte SPACE_SEPARATOR

General category "Zs" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 12 (0x0000000c)

START_PUNCTUATION

Added in API level 1
public static final byte START_PUNCTUATION

General category "Ps" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 21 (0x00000015)

SURROGATE

Added in API level 1
public static final byte SURROGATE

General category "Cs" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 19 (0x00000013)

TITLECASE_LETTER

Added in API level 1
public static final byte TITLECASE_LETTER

General category "Lt" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 3 (0x00000003)

UNASSIGNED

Added in API level 1
public static final byte UNASSIGNED

General category "Cn" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 0 (0x00000000)

UPPERCASE_LETTER

Added in API level 1
public static final byte UPPERCASE_LETTER

General category "Lu" in the Unicode specification.

Constant Value: 1 (0x00000001)

Fields

TYPE

Added in API level 1
public static final Class<Character> TYPE

The Class instance representing the primitive type char.

Public constructors

Character

Added in API level 1
public Character (char value)

This constructor is deprecated.
It is rarely appropriate to use this constructor. The static factory valueOf(char) is generally a better choice, as it is likely to yield significantly better space and time performance.

Constructs a newly allocated Character object that represents the specified char value.

Parameters
value char: the value to be represented by the Character object.

Public methods

charCount

Added in API level 1
public static int charCount (int codePoint)

Determines the number of char values needed to represent the specified character (Unicode code point). If the specified character is equal to or greater than 0x10000, then the method returns 2. Otherwise, the method returns 1.

This method doesn't validate the specified character to be a valid Unicode code point. The caller must validate the character value using isValidCodePoint if necessary.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
int 2 if the character is a valid supplementary character; 1 otherwise.

charValue

Added in API level 1
public char charValue ()

Returns the value of this Character object.

Returns
char the primitive char value represented by this object.

codePointAt

Added in API level 1
public static int codePointAt (char[] a, 
                int index, 
                int limit)

Returns the code point at the given index of the char array, where only array elements with index less than limit can be used. If the char value at the given index in the char array is in the high-surrogate range, the following index is less than the limit, and the char value at the following index is in the low-surrogate range, then the supplementary code point corresponding to this surrogate pair is returned. Otherwise, the char value at the given index is returned.

Parameters
a char: the char array

index int: the index to the char values (Unicode code units) in the char array to be converted

limit int: the index after the last array element that can be used in the char array

Returns
int the Unicode code point at the given index

Throws
NullPointerException if a is null.
IndexOutOfBoundsException if the index argument is negative or not less than the limit argument, or if the limit argument is negative or greater than the length of the char array.

codePointAt

Added in API level 1
public static int codePointAt (char[] a, 
                int index)

Returns the code point at the given index of the char array. If the char value at the given index in the char array is in the high-surrogate range, the following index is less than the length of the char array, and the char value at the following index is in the low-surrogate range, then the supplementary code point corresponding to this surrogate pair is returned. Otherwise, the char value at the given index is returned.

Parameters
a char: the char array

index int: the index to the char values (Unicode code units) in the char array to be converted

Returns
int the Unicode code point at the given index

Throws
NullPointerException if a is null.
IndexOutOfBoundsException if the value index is negative or not less than the length of the char array.

codePointAt

Added in API level 1
public static int codePointAt (CharSequence seq, 
                int index)

Returns the code point at the given index of the CharSequence. If the char value at the given index in the CharSequence is in the high-surrogate range, the following index is less than the length of the CharSequence, and the char value at the following index is in the low-surrogate range, then the supplementary code point corresponding to this surrogate pair is returned. Otherwise, the char value at the given index is returned.

Parameters
seq CharSequence: a sequence of char values (Unicode code units)

index int: the index to the char values (Unicode code units) in seq to be converted

Returns
int the Unicode code point at the given index

Throws
NullPointerException if seq is null.
IndexOutOfBoundsException if the value index is negative or not less than seq.length().

codePointBefore

Added in API level 1
public static int codePointBefore (char[] a, 
                int index)

Returns the code point preceding the given index of the char array. If the char value at (index - 1) in the char array is in the low-surrogate range, (index - 2) is not negative, and the char value at (index - 2) in the char array is in the high-surrogate range, then the supplementary code point corresponding to this surrogate pair is returned. Otherwise, the char value at (index - 1) is returned.

Parameters
a char: the char array

index int: the index following the code point that should be returned

Returns
int the Unicode code point value before the given index.

Throws
NullPointerException if a is null.
IndexOutOfBoundsException if the index argument is less than 1 or greater than the length of the char array

codePointBefore

Added in API level 1
public static int codePointBefore (CharSequence seq, 
                int index)

Returns the code point preceding the given index of the CharSequence. If the char value at (index - 1) in the CharSequence is in the low-surrogate range, (index - 2) is not negative, and the char value at (index - 2) in the CharSequence is in the high-surrogate range, then the supplementary code point corresponding to this surrogate pair is returned. Otherwise, the char value at (index - 1) is returned.

Parameters
seq CharSequence: the CharSequence instance

index int: the index following the code point that should be returned

Returns
int the Unicode code point value before the given index.

Throws
NullPointerException if seq is null.
IndexOutOfBoundsException if the index argument is less than 1 or greater than seq.length().

codePointBefore

Added in API level 1
public static int codePointBefore (char[] a, 
                int index, 
                int start)

Returns the code point preceding the given index of the char array, where only array elements with index greater than or equal to start can be used. If the char value at (index - 1) in the char array is in the low-surrogate range, (index - 2) is not less than start, and the char value at (index - 2) in the char array is in the high-surrogate range, then the supplementary code point corresponding to this surrogate pair is returned. Otherwise, the char value at (index - 1) is returned.

Parameters
a char: the char array

index int: the index following the code point that should be returned

start int: the index of the first array element in the char array

Returns
int the Unicode code point value before the given index.

Throws
NullPointerException if a is null.
IndexOutOfBoundsException if the index argument is not greater than the start argument or is greater than the length of the char array, or if the start argument is negative or not less than the length of the char array.

codePointCount

Added in API level 1
public static int codePointCount (CharSequence seq, 
                int beginIndex, 
                int endIndex)

Returns the number of Unicode code points in the text range of the specified char sequence. The text range begins at the specified beginIndex and extends to the char at index endIndex - 1. Thus the length (in chars) of the text range is endIndex-beginIndex. Unpaired surrogates within the text range count as one code point each.

Parameters
seq CharSequence: the char sequence

beginIndex int: the index to the first char of the text range.

endIndex int: the index after the last char of the text range.

Returns
int the number of Unicode code points in the specified text range

Throws
NullPointerException if seq is null.
IndexOutOfBoundsException if the beginIndex is negative, or endIndex is larger than the length of the given sequence, or beginIndex is larger than endIndex.

codePointCount

Added in API level 1
public static int codePointCount (char[] a, 
                int offset, 
                int count)

Returns the number of Unicode code points in a subarray of the char array argument. The offset argument is the index of the first char of the subarray and the count argument specifies the length of the subarray in chars. Unpaired surrogates within the subarray count as one code point each.

Parameters
a char: the char array

offset int: the index of the first char in the given char array

count int: the length of the subarray in chars

Returns
int the number of Unicode code points in the specified subarray

Throws
NullPointerException if a is null.
IndexOutOfBoundsException if offset or count is negative, or if offset + count is larger than the length of the given array.

codePointOf

Added in API level 35
public static int codePointOf (String name)

Returns the code point value of the Unicode character specified by the given Unicode character name.

Note: if a character is not assigned a name by the UnicodeData file (part of the Unicode Character Database maintained by the Unicode Consortium), its name is defined as the result of expression:

Character.UnicodeBlock.of(codePoint).toString().replace('_', ' ') + " " + Integer.toHexString(codePoint).toUpperCase(Locale.ROOT);

The name matching is case insensitive, with any leading and trailing whitespace character removed.

Parameters
name String: the Unicode character name

Returns
int the code point value of the character specified by its name.

Throws
IllegalArgumentException if the specified name is not a valid Unicode character name.
NullPointerException if name is null

compare

Added in API level 19
public static int compare (char x, 
                char y)

Compares two char values numerically. The value returned is identical to what would be returned by:

    Character.valueOf(x).compareTo(Character.valueOf(y))
 

Parameters
x char: the first char to compare

y char: the second char to compare

Returns
int the value 0 if x == y; a value less than 0 if x < y; and a value greater than 0 if x > y

compareTo

Added in API level 1
public int compareTo (Character anotherCharacter)

Compares two Character objects numerically.

Parameters
anotherCharacter Character: the Character to be compared.

Returns
int the value 0 if the argument Character is equal to this Character; a value less than 0 if this Character is numerically less than the Character argument; and a value greater than 0 if this Character is numerically greater than the Character argument (unsigned comparison). Note that this is strictly a numerical comparison; it is not locale-dependent.

digit

Added in API level 1
public static int digit (int codePoint, 
                int radix)

Returns the numeric value of the specified character (Unicode code point) in the specified radix.

If the radix is not in the range MIN_RADIXradixMAX_RADIX or if the character is not a valid digit in the specified radix, -1 is returned. A character is a valid digit if at least one of the following is true:

  • The method isDigit(codePoint) is true of the character and the Unicode decimal digit value of the character (or its single-character decomposition) is less than the specified radix. In this case the decimal digit value is returned.
  • The character is one of the uppercase Latin letters 'A' through 'Z' and its code is less than radix + 'A' - 10. In this case, codePoint - 'A' + 10 is returned.
  • The character is one of the lowercase Latin letters 'a' through 'z' and its code is less than radix + 'a' - 10. In this case, codePoint - 'a' + 10 is returned.
  • The character is one of the fullwidth uppercase Latin letters A ('\uFF21') through Z ('\uFF3A') and its code is less than radix + '\uFF21' - 10. In this case, codePoint - '\uFF21' + 10 is returned.
  • The character is one of the fullwidth lowercase Latin letters a ('\uFF41') through z ('\uFF5A') and its code is less than radix + '\uFF41'- 10. In this case, codePoint - '\uFF41' + 10 is returned.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be converted.

radix int: the radix.

Returns
int the numeric value represented by the character in the specified radix.

digit

Added in API level 1
public static int digit (char ch, 
                int radix)

Returns the numeric value of the character ch in the specified radix.

If the radix is not in the range MIN_RADIXradixMAX_RADIX or if the value of ch is not a valid digit in the specified radix, -1 is returned. A character is a valid digit if at least one of the following is true:

  • The method isDigit is true of the character and the Unicode decimal digit value of the character (or its single-character decomposition) is less than the specified radix. In this case the decimal digit value is returned.
  • The character is one of the uppercase Latin letters 'A' through 'Z' and its code is less than radix + 'A' - 10. In this case, ch - 'A' + 10 is returned.
  • The character is one of the lowercase Latin letters 'a' through 'z' and its code is less than radix + 'a' - 10. In this case, ch - 'a' + 10 is returned.
  • The character is one of the fullwidth uppercase Latin letters A ('\uFF21') through Z ('\uFF3A') and its code is less than radix + '\uFF21' - 10. In this case, ch - '\uFF21' + 10 is returned.
  • The character is one of the fullwidth lowercase Latin letters a ('\uFF41') through z ('\uFF5A') and its code is less than radix + '\uFF41' - 10. In this case, ch - '\uFF41' + 10 is returned.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the digit(int, int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be converted.

radix int: the radix.

Returns
int the numeric value represented by the character in the specified radix.

equals

Added in API level 1
public boolean equals (Object obj)

Compares this object against the specified object. The result is true if and only if the argument is not null and is a Character object that represents the same char value as this object.

Parameters
obj Object: the object to compare with.

Returns
boolean true if the objects are the same; false otherwise.

forDigit

Added in API level 1
public static char forDigit (int digit, 
                int radix)

Determines the character representation for a specific digit in the specified radix. If the value of radix is not a valid radix, or the value of digit is not a valid digit in the specified radix, the null character ('\u0000') is returned.

The radix argument is valid if it is greater than or equal to MIN_RADIX and less than or equal to MAX_RADIX. The digit argument is valid if 0 <= digit < radix.

If the digit is less than 10, then '0' + digit is returned. Otherwise, the value 'a' + digit - 10 is returned.

Parameters
digit int: the number to convert to a character.

radix int: the radix.

Returns
char the char representation of the specified digit in the specified radix.

getDirectionality

Added in API level 1
public static byte getDirectionality (char ch)

Returns the Unicode directionality property for the given character. Character directionality is used to calculate the visual ordering of text. The directionality value of undefined char values is DIRECTIONALITY_UNDEFINED.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the getDirectionality(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: char for which the directionality property is requested.

Returns
byte the directionality property of the char value.

See also:

getDirectionality

Added in API level 1
public static byte getDirectionality (int codePoint)

Returns the Unicode directionality property for the given character (Unicode code point). Character directionality is used to calculate the visual ordering of text. The directionality value of undefined character is DIRECTIONALITY_UNDEFINED.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) for which the directionality property is requested.

Returns
byte the directionality property of the character.

See also:

getName

Added in API level 19
public static String getName (int codePoint)

Returns the Unicode name of the specified character codePoint, or null if the code point is unassigned.

Note: if the specified character is not assigned a name by the UnicodeData file (part of the Unicode Character Database maintained by the Unicode Consortium), the returned name is the same as the result of expression:

Character.UnicodeBlock.of(codePoint).toString().replace('_', ' ') + " " + Integer.toHexString(codePoint).toUpperCase(Locale.ROOT);

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point)

Returns
String the Unicode name of the specified character, or null if the code point is unassigned.

Throws
IllegalArgumentException if the specified codePoint is not a valid Unicode code point.

getNumericValue

Added in API level 1
public static int getNumericValue (int codePoint)

Returns the int value that the specified character (Unicode code point) represents. For example, the character '\u216C' (the Roman numeral fifty) will return an int with a value of 50.

The letters A-Z in their uppercase ('\u0041' through '\u005A'), lowercase ('\u0061' through '\u007A'), and full width variant ('\uFF21' through '\uFF3A' and '\uFF41' through '\uFF5A') forms have numeric values from 10 through 35. This is independent of the Unicode specification, which does not assign numeric values to these char values.

If the character does not have a numeric value, then -1 is returned. If the character has a numeric value that cannot be represented as a nonnegative integer (for example, a fractional value), then -2 is returned.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be converted.

Returns
int the numeric value of the character, as a nonnegative int value; -2 if the character has a numeric value but the value can not be represented as a nonnegative int value; -1 if the character has no numeric value.

getNumericValue

Added in API level 1
public static int getNumericValue (char ch)

Returns the int value that the specified Unicode character represents. For example, the character '\u216C' (the roman numeral fifty) will return an int with a value of 50.

The letters A-Z in their uppercase ('\u0041' through '\u005A'), lowercase ('\u0061' through '\u007A'), and full width variant ('\uFF21' through '\uFF3A' and '\uFF41' through '\uFF5A') forms have numeric values from 10 through 35. This is independent of the Unicode specification, which does not assign numeric values to these char values.

If the character does not have a numeric value, then -1 is returned. If the character has a numeric value that cannot be represented as a nonnegative integer (for example, a fractional value), then -2 is returned.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the getNumericValue(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be converted.

Returns
int the numeric value of the character, as a nonnegative int value; -2 if the character has a numeric value but the value can not be represented as a nonnegative int value; -1 if the character has no numeric value.

getType

Added in API level 1
public static int getType (char ch)

Returns a value indicating a character's general category.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the getType(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
int a value of type int representing the character's general category.

hashCode

Added in API level 24
public static int hashCode (char value)

Returns a hash code for a char value; compatible with Character.hashCode().

Parameters
value char: The char for which to return a hash code.

Returns
int a hash code value for a char value.

hashCode

Added in API level 1
public int hashCode ()

Returns a hash code for this Character; equal to the result of invoking charValue().

Returns
int a hash code value for this Character

highSurrogate

Added in API level 19
public static char highSurrogate (int codePoint)

Returns the leading surrogate (a high surrogate code unit) of the surrogate pair representing the specified supplementary character (Unicode code point) in the UTF-16 encoding. If the specified character is not a supplementary character, an unspecified char is returned.

If isSupplementaryCodePoint(x) is true, then isHighSurrogate(highSurrogate(x)) and toCodePoint(highSurrogate(x), lowSurrogate(x)) == x are also always true.

Parameters
codePoint int: a supplementary character (Unicode code point)

Returns
char the leading surrogate code unit used to represent the character in the UTF-16 encoding

isAlphabetic

Added in API level 19
public static boolean isAlphabetic (int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is alphabetic.

A character is considered to be alphabetic if its general category type, provided by getType(codePoint), is any of the following:

  • UPPERCASE_LETTER
  • LOWERCASE_LETTER
  • TITLECASE_LETTER
  • MODIFIER_LETTER
  • OTHER_LETTER
  • LETTER_NUMBER
or it has contributory property Other_Alphabetic as defined by the Unicode Standard.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is a Unicode alphabet character, false otherwise.

isBmpCodePoint

Added in API level 19
public static boolean isBmpCodePoint (int codePoint)

Determines whether the specified character (Unicode code point) is in the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP). Such code points can be represented using a single char.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be to

Returns
boolean true if the specified code point is between MIN_VALUE and MAX_VALUE inclusive; false otherwise.

isDefined

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isDefined (int codePoint)

Determines if a character (Unicode code point) is defined in Unicode.

A character is defined if at least one of the following is true:

  • It has an entry in the UnicodeData file.
  • It has a value in a range defined by the UnicodeData file.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character has a defined meaning in Unicode; false otherwise.

isDefined

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isDefined (char ch)

Determines if a character is defined in Unicode.

A character is defined if at least one of the following is true:

  • It has an entry in the UnicodeData file.
  • It has a value in a range defined by the UnicodeData file.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the isDefined(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested

Returns
boolean true if the character has a defined meaning in Unicode; false otherwise.

isDigit

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isDigit (char ch)

Determines if the specified character is a digit.

A character is a digit if its general category type, provided by Character.getType(ch), is DECIMAL_DIGIT_NUMBER.

Some Unicode character ranges that contain digits:

  • '\u0030' through '\u0039', ISO-LATIN-1 digits ('0' through '9')
  • '\u0660' through '\u0669', Arabic-Indic digits
  • '\u06F0' through '\u06F9', Extended Arabic-Indic digits
  • '\u0966' through '\u096F', Devanagari digits
  • '\uFF10' through '\uFF19', Fullwidth digits
Many other character ranges contain digits as well.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the isDigit(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is a digit; false otherwise.

isDigit

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isDigit (int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is a digit.

A character is a digit if its general category type, provided by getType(codePoint), is DECIMAL_DIGIT_NUMBER.

Some Unicode character ranges that contain digits:

  • '\u0030' through '\u0039', ISO-LATIN-1 digits ('0' through '9')
  • '\u0660' through '\u0669', Arabic-Indic digits
  • '\u06F0' through '\u06F9', Extended Arabic-Indic digits
  • '\u0966' through '\u096F', Devanagari digits
  • '\uFF10' through '\uFF19', Fullwidth digits
Many other character ranges contain digits as well.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is a digit; false otherwise.

isHighSurrogate

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isHighSurrogate (char ch)

Determines if the given char value is a Unicode high-surrogate code unit (also known as leading-surrogate code unit).

Such values do not represent characters by themselves, but are used in the representation of supplementary characters in the UTF-16 encoding.

Parameters
ch char: the char value to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the char value is between MIN_HIGH_SURROGATE and MAX_HIGH_SURROGATE inclusive; false otherwise.

isISOControl

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isISOControl (char ch)

Determines if the specified character is an ISO control character. A character is considered to be an ISO control character if its code is in the range '\u0000' through '\u001F' or in the range '\u007F' through '\u009F'.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the isISOControl(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is an ISO control character; false otherwise.

isISOControl

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isISOControl (int codePoint)

Determines if the referenced character (Unicode code point) is an ISO control character. A character is considered to be an ISO control character if its code is in the range '\u0000' through '\u001F' or in the range '\u007F' through '\u009F'.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is an ISO control character; false otherwise.

isIdentifierIgnorable

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isIdentifierIgnorable (char ch)

Determines if the specified character should be regarded as an ignorable character in a Java identifier or a Unicode identifier.

The following Unicode characters are ignorable in a Java identifier or a Unicode identifier:

  • ISO control characters that are not whitespace
    • '\u0000' through '\u0008'
    • '\u000E' through '\u001B'
    • '\u007F' through '\u009F'
  • all characters that have the FORMAT general category value

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the isIdentifierIgnorable(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is an ignorable control character that may be part of a Java or Unicode identifier; false otherwise.

isIdentifierIgnorable

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isIdentifierIgnorable (int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) should be regarded as an ignorable character in a Java identifier or a Unicode identifier.

The following Unicode characters are ignorable in a Java identifier or a Unicode identifier:

  • ISO control characters that are not whitespace
    • '\u0000' through '\u0008'
    • '\u000E' through '\u001B'
    • '\u007F' through '\u009F'
  • all characters that have the FORMAT general category value

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is an ignorable control character that may be part of a Java or Unicode identifier; false otherwise.

isIdeographic

Added in API level 19
public static boolean isIdeographic (int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is a CJKV (Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese) ideograph, as defined by the Unicode Standard.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is a Unicode ideograph character, false otherwise.

isJavaIdentifierPart

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isJavaIdentifierPart (char ch)

Determines if the specified character may be part of a Java identifier as other than the first character.

A character may be part of a Java identifier if any of the following conditions are true:

  • it is a letter
  • it is a currency symbol (such as '$')
  • it is a connecting punctuation character (such as '_')
  • it is a digit
  • it is a numeric letter (such as a Roman numeral character)
  • it is a combining mark
  • it is a non-spacing mark
  • isIdentifierIgnorable returns true for the character

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the isJavaIdentifierPart(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character may be part of a Java identifier; false otherwise.

isJavaIdentifierPart

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isJavaIdentifierPart (int codePoint)

Determines if the character (Unicode code point) may be part of a Java identifier as other than the first character.

A character may be part of a Java identifier if any of the following conditions are true:

  • it is a letter
  • it is a currency symbol (such as '$')
  • it is a connecting punctuation character (such as '_')
  • it is a digit
  • it is a numeric letter (such as a Roman numeral character)
  • it is a combining mark
  • it is a non-spacing mark
  • isIdentifierIgnorable(codePoint) returns true for the code point

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character may be part of a Java identifier; false otherwise.

isJavaIdentifierStart

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isJavaIdentifierStart (int codePoint)

Determines if the character (Unicode code point) is permissible as the first character in a Java identifier.

A character may start a Java identifier if and only if one of the following conditions is true:

  • isLetter(codePoint) returns true
  • getType(codePoint) returns LETTER_NUMBER
  • the referenced character is a currency symbol (such as '$')
  • the referenced character is a connecting punctuation character (such as '_').

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character may start a Java identifier; false otherwise.

isJavaIdentifierStart

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isJavaIdentifierStart (char ch)

Determines if the specified character is permissible as the first character in a Java identifier.

A character may start a Java identifier if and only if one of the following conditions is true:

  • isLetter(ch) returns true
  • getType(ch) returns LETTER_NUMBER
  • ch is a currency symbol (such as '$')
  • ch is a connecting punctuation character (such as '_').

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the isJavaIdentifierStart(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character may start a Java identifier; false otherwise.

isJavaLetter

Added in API level 1
Deprecated in API level 15
public static boolean isJavaLetter (char ch)

This method was deprecated in API level 15.
Replaced by isJavaIdentifierStart(char).

Determines if the specified character is permissible as the first character in a Java identifier.

A character may start a Java identifier if and only if one of the following conditions is true:

  • isLetter(ch) returns true
  • getType(ch) returns LETTER_NUMBER
  • ch is a currency symbol (such as '$')
  • ch is a connecting punctuation character (such as '_').

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character may start a Java identifier; false otherwise.

isJavaLetterOrDigit

Added in API level 1
Deprecated in API level 15
public static boolean isJavaLetterOrDigit (char ch)

This method was deprecated in API level 15.
Replaced by isJavaIdentifierPart(char).

Determines if the specified character may be part of a Java identifier as other than the first character.

A character may be part of a Java identifier if and only if one of the following conditions is true:

  • it is a letter
  • it is a currency symbol (such as '$')
  • it is a connecting punctuation character (such as '_')
  • it is a digit
  • it is a numeric letter (such as a Roman numeral character)
  • it is a combining mark
  • it is a non-spacing mark
  • isIdentifierIgnorable returns true for the character.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character may be part of a Java identifier; false otherwise.

isLetter

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isLetter (char ch)

Determines if the specified character is a letter.

A character is considered to be a letter if its general category type, provided by Character.getType(ch), is any of the following:

  • UPPERCASE_LETTER
  • LOWERCASE_LETTER
  • TITLECASE_LETTER
  • MODIFIER_LETTER
  • OTHER_LETTER
Not all letters have case. Many characters are letters but are neither uppercase nor lowercase nor titlecase.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the isLetter(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is a letter; false otherwise.

isLetter

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isLetter (int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is a letter.

A character is considered to be a letter if its general category type, provided by getType(codePoint), is any of the following:

  • UPPERCASE_LETTER
  • LOWERCASE_LETTER
  • TITLECASE_LETTER
  • MODIFIER_LETTER
  • OTHER_LETTER
Not all letters have case. Many characters are letters but are neither uppercase nor lowercase nor titlecase.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is a letter; false otherwise.

isLetterOrDigit

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isLetterOrDigit (char ch)

Determines if the specified character is a letter or digit.

A character is considered to be a letter or digit if either Character.isLetter(char ch) or Character.isDigit(char ch) returns true for the character.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the isLetterOrDigit(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is a letter or digit; false otherwise.

isLetterOrDigit

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isLetterOrDigit (int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is a letter or digit.

A character is considered to be a letter or digit if either isLetter(codePoint) or isDigit(codePoint) returns true for the character.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is a letter or digit; false otherwise.

isLowSurrogate

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isLowSurrogate (char ch)

Determines if the given char value is a Unicode low-surrogate code unit (also known as trailing-surrogate code unit).

Such values do not represent characters by themselves, but are used in the representation of supplementary characters in the UTF-16 encoding.

Parameters
ch char: the char value to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the char value is between MIN_LOW_SURROGATE and MAX_LOW_SURROGATE inclusive; false otherwise.

isLowerCase

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isLowerCase (char ch)

Determines if the specified character is a lowercase character.

A character is lowercase if its general category type, provided by Character.getType(ch), is LOWERCASE_LETTER, or it has contributory property Other_Lowercase as defined by the Unicode Standard.

The following are examples of lowercase characters:

 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
 '\u00DF' '\u00E0' '\u00E1' '\u00E2' '\u00E3' '\u00E4' '\u00E5' '\u00E6'
 '\u00E7' '\u00E8' '\u00E9' '\u00EA' '\u00EB' '\u00EC' '\u00ED' '\u00EE'
 '\u00EF' '\u00F0' '\u00F1' '\u00F2' '\u00F3' '\u00F4' '\u00F5' '\u00F6'
 '\u00F8' '\u00F9' '\u00FA' '\u00FB' '\u00FC' '\u00FD' '\u00FE' '\u00FF'
 

Many other Unicode characters are lowercase too.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the isLowerCase(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is lowercase; false otherwise.

isLowerCase

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isLowerCase (int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is a lowercase character.

A character is lowercase if its general category type, provided by getType(codePoint), is LOWERCASE_LETTER, or it has contributory property Other_Lowercase as defined by the Unicode Standard.

The following are examples of lowercase characters:

 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
 '\u00DF' '\u00E0' '\u00E1' '\u00E2' '\u00E3' '\u00E4' '\u00E5' '\u00E6'
 '\u00E7' '\u00E8' '\u00E9' '\u00EA' '\u00EB' '\u00EC' '\u00ED' '\u00EE'
 '\u00EF' '\u00F0' '\u00F1' '\u00F2' '\u00F3' '\u00F4' '\u00F5' '\u00F6'
 '\u00F8' '\u00F9' '\u00FA' '\u00FB' '\u00FC' '\u00FD' '\u00FE' '\u00FF'
 

Many other Unicode characters are lowercase too.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is lowercase; false otherwise.

isMirrored

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isMirrored (int codePoint)

Determines whether the specified character (Unicode code point) is mirrored according to the Unicode specification. Mirrored characters should have their glyphs horizontally mirrored when displayed in text that is right-to-left. For example, '\u0028' LEFT PARENTHESIS is semantically defined to be an opening parenthesis. This will appear as a "(" in text that is left-to-right but as a ")" in text that is right-to-left.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is mirrored, false if the character is not mirrored or is not defined.

isMirrored

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isMirrored (char ch)

Determines whether the character is mirrored according to the Unicode specification. Mirrored characters should have their glyphs horizontally mirrored when displayed in text that is right-to-left. For example, '\u0028' LEFT PARENTHESIS is semantically defined to be an opening parenthesis. This will appear as a "(" in text that is left-to-right but as a ")" in text that is right-to-left.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the isMirrored(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: char for which the mirrored property is requested

Returns
boolean true if the char is mirrored, false if the char is not mirrored or is not defined.

isSpace

Added in API level 1
Deprecated in API level 15
public static boolean isSpace (char ch)

This method was deprecated in API level 15.
Replaced by isWhitespace(char).

Determines if the specified character is ISO-LATIN-1 white space. This method returns true for the following five characters only:

truechars
Character Code Name
'\t' U+0009 HORIZONTAL TABULATION
'\n' U+000A NEW LINE
'\f' U+000C FORM FEED
'\r' U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN
' ' U+0020 SPACE

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is ISO-LATIN-1 white space; false otherwise.

isSpaceChar

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isSpaceChar (char ch)

Determines if the specified character is a Unicode space character. A character is considered to be a space character if and only if it is specified to be a space character by the Unicode Standard. This method returns true if the character's general category type is any of the following:

  • SPACE_SEPARATOR
  • LINE_SEPARATOR
  • PARAGRAPH_SEPARATOR

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the isSpaceChar(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is a space character; false otherwise.

See also:

isSpaceChar

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isSpaceChar (int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is a Unicode space character. A character is considered to be a space character if and only if it is specified to be a space character by the Unicode Standard. This method returns true if the character's general category type is any of the following:

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is a space character; false otherwise.

See also:

isSupplementaryCodePoint

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isSupplementaryCodePoint (int codePoint)

Determines whether the specified character (Unicode code point) is in the supplementary character range.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested

Returns
boolean true if the specified code point is between MIN_SUPPLEMENTARY_CODE_POINT and MAX_CODE_POINT inclusive; false otherwise.

isSurrogate

Added in API level 19
public static boolean isSurrogate (char ch)

Determines if the given char value is a Unicode surrogate code unit.

Such values do not represent characters by themselves, but are used in the representation of supplementary characters in the UTF-16 encoding.

A char value is a surrogate code unit if and only if it is either a low-surrogate code unit or a high-surrogate code unit.

Parameters
ch char: the char value to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the char value is between MIN_SURROGATE and MAX_SURROGATE inclusive; false otherwise.

isSurrogatePair

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isSurrogatePair (char high, 
                char low)

Determines whether the specified pair of char values is a valid Unicode surrogate pair.

This method is equivalent to the expression:

isHighSurrogate(high) && isLowSurrogate(low)
 

Parameters
high char: the high-surrogate code value to be tested

low char: the low-surrogate code value to be tested

Returns
boolean true if the specified high and low-surrogate code values represent a valid surrogate pair; false otherwise.

isTitleCase

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isTitleCase (int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is a titlecase character.

A character is a titlecase character if its general category type, provided by getType(codePoint), is TITLECASE_LETTER.

Some characters look like pairs of Latin letters. For example, there is an uppercase letter that looks like "LJ" and has a corresponding lowercase letter that looks like "lj". A third form, which looks like "Lj", is the appropriate form to use when rendering a word in lowercase with initial capitals, as for a book title.

These are some of the Unicode characters for which this method returns true:

  • LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH SMALL LETTER Z WITH CARON
  • LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH SMALL LETTER J
  • LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH SMALL LETTER J
  • LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH SMALL LETTER Z

Many other Unicode characters are titlecase too.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is titlecase; false otherwise.

isTitleCase

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isTitleCase (char ch)

Determines if the specified character is a titlecase character.

A character is a titlecase character if its general category type, provided by Character.getType(ch), is TITLECASE_LETTER.

Some characters look like pairs of Latin letters. For example, there is an uppercase letter that looks like "LJ" and has a corresponding lowercase letter that looks like "lj". A third form, which looks like "Lj", is the appropriate form to use when rendering a word in lowercase with initial capitals, as for a book title.

These are some of the Unicode characters for which this method returns true:

  • LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH SMALL LETTER Z WITH CARON
  • LATIN CAPITAL LETTER L WITH SMALL LETTER J
  • LATIN CAPITAL LETTER N WITH SMALL LETTER J
  • LATIN CAPITAL LETTER D WITH SMALL LETTER Z

Many other Unicode characters are titlecase too.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the isTitleCase(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is titlecase; false otherwise.

isUnicodeIdentifierPart

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isUnicodeIdentifierPart (int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) may be part of a Unicode identifier as other than the first character.

A character may be part of a Unicode identifier if and only if one of the following statements is true:

  • it is a letter
  • it is a connecting punctuation character (such as '_')
  • it is a digit
  • it is a numeric letter (such as a Roman numeral character)
  • it is a combining mark
  • it is a non-spacing mark
  • isIdentifierIgnorable returns true for this character.
  • it is an Other_ID_Start character.
  • it is an Other_ID_Continue character.

This method conforms to UAX31-R1: Default Identifiers requirement of the Unicode Standard, with the following profile of UAX31:

 Continue := Start + ID_Continue + ignorable
 Medial := empty
 ignorable := isIdentifierIgnorable(int) returns true for the character
 
ignorable is added to Continue for backward compatibility.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character may be part of a Unicode identifier; false otherwise.

isUnicodeIdentifierPart

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isUnicodeIdentifierPart (char ch)

Determines if the specified character may be part of a Unicode identifier as other than the first character.

A character may be part of a Unicode identifier if and only if one of the following statements is true:

  • it is a letter
  • it is a connecting punctuation character (such as '_')
  • it is a digit
  • it is a numeric letter (such as a Roman numeral character)
  • it is a combining mark
  • it is a non-spacing mark
  • isIdentifierIgnorable returns true for this character.
  • it is an Other_ID_Start character.
  • it is an Other_ID_Continue character.

This method conforms to UAX31-R1: Default Identifiers requirement of the Unicode Standard, with the following profile of UAX31:

 Continue := Start + ID_Continue + ignorable
 Medial := empty
 ignorable := isIdentifierIgnorable(char) returns true for the character
 
ignorable is added to Continue for backward compatibility.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the isUnicodeIdentifierPart(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character may be part of a Unicode identifier; false otherwise.

isUnicodeIdentifierStart

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isUnicodeIdentifierStart (int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is permissible as the first character in a Unicode identifier.

A character may start a Unicode identifier if and only if one of the following conditions is true:

This method conforms to UAX31-R1: Default Identifiers requirement of the Unicode Standard, with the following profile of UAX31:

 Start := ID_Start + 'VERTICAL TILDE' (U+2E2F)
 
'VERTICAL TILDE' is added to Start for backward compatibility.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character may start a Unicode identifier; false otherwise.

isUnicodeIdentifierStart

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isUnicodeIdentifierStart (char ch)

Determines if the specified character is permissible as the first character in a Unicode identifier.

A character may start a Unicode identifier if and only if one of the following conditions is true:

This method conforms to UAX31-R1: Default Identifiers requirement of the Unicode Standard, with the following profile of UAX31:

 Start := ID_Start + 'VERTICAL TILDE' (U+2E2F)
 
'VERTICAL TILDE' is added to Start for backward compatibility.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the isUnicodeIdentifierStart(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character may start a Unicode identifier; false otherwise.

isUpperCase

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isUpperCase (char ch)

Determines if the specified character is an uppercase character.

A character is uppercase if its general category type, provided by Character.getType(ch), is UPPERCASE_LETTER. or it has contributory property Other_Uppercase as defined by the Unicode Standard.

The following are examples of uppercase characters:

 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 '\u00C0' '\u00C1' '\u00C2' '\u00C3' '\u00C4' '\u00C5' '\u00C6' '\u00C7'
 '\u00C8' '\u00C9' '\u00CA' '\u00CB' '\u00CC' '\u00CD' '\u00CE' '\u00CF'
 '\u00D0' '\u00D1' '\u00D2' '\u00D3' '\u00D4' '\u00D5' '\u00D6' '\u00D8'
 '\u00D9' '\u00DA' '\u00DB' '\u00DC' '\u00DD' '\u00DE'
 

Many other Unicode characters are uppercase too.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the isUpperCase(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is uppercase; false otherwise.

isUpperCase

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isUpperCase (int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is an uppercase character.

A character is uppercase if its general category type, provided by getType(codePoint), is UPPERCASE_LETTER, or it has contributory property Other_Uppercase as defined by the Unicode Standard.

The following are examples of uppercase characters:

 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 '\u00C0' '\u00C1' '\u00C2' '\u00C3' '\u00C4' '\u00C5' '\u00C6' '\u00C7'
 '\u00C8' '\u00C9' '\u00CA' '\u00CB' '\u00CC' '\u00CD' '\u00CE' '\u00CF'
 '\u00D0' '\u00D1' '\u00D2' '\u00D3' '\u00D4' '\u00D5' '\u00D6' '\u00D8'
 '\u00D9' '\u00DA' '\u00DB' '\u00DC' '\u00DD' '\u00DE'
 

Many other Unicode characters are uppercase too.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is uppercase; false otherwise.

isValidCodePoint

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isValidCodePoint (int codePoint)

Determines whether the specified code point is a valid Unicode code point value.

Parameters
codePoint int: the Unicode code point to be tested

Returns
boolean true if the specified code point value is between MIN_CODE_POINT and MAX_CODE_POINT inclusive; false otherwise.

isWhitespace

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isWhitespace (int codePoint)

Determines if the specified character (Unicode code point) is white space according to Java. A character is a Java whitespace character if and only if it satisfies one of the following criteria:

  • It is a Unicode space character (SPACE_SEPARATOR, LINE_SEPARATOR, or PARAGRAPH_SEPARATOR) but is not also a non-breaking space ('\u00A0', '\u2007', '\u202F').
  • It is '\t', U+0009 HORIZONTAL TABULATION.
  • It is '\n', U+000A LINE FEED.
  • It is '\u000B', U+000B VERTICAL TABULATION.
  • It is '\f', U+000C FORM FEED.
  • It is '\r', U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN.
  • It is '\u001C', U+001C FILE SEPARATOR.
  • It is '\u001D', U+001D GROUP SEPARATOR.
  • It is '\u001E', U+001E RECORD SEPARATOR.
  • It is '\u001F', U+001F UNIT SEPARATOR.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is a Java whitespace character; false otherwise.

See also:

isWhitespace

Added in API level 1
public static boolean isWhitespace (char ch)

Determines if the specified character is white space according to Java. A character is a Java whitespace character if and only if it satisfies one of the following criteria:

  • It is a Unicode space character (SPACE_SEPARATOR, LINE_SEPARATOR, or PARAGRAPH_SEPARATOR) but is not also a non-breaking space ('\u00A0', '\u2007', '\u202F').
  • It is '\t', U+0009 HORIZONTAL TABULATION.
  • It is '\n', U+000A LINE FEED.
  • It is '\u000B', U+000B VERTICAL TABULATION.
  • It is '\f', U+000C FORM FEED.
  • It is '\r', U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN.
  • It is '\u001C', U+001C FILE SEPARATOR.
  • It is '\u001D', U+001D GROUP SEPARATOR.
  • It is '\u001E', U+001E RECORD SEPARATOR.
  • It is '\u001F', U+001F UNIT SEPARATOR.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the isWhitespace(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be tested.

Returns
boolean true if the character is a Java whitespace character; false otherwise.

See also:

lowSurrogate

Added in API level 19
public static char lowSurrogate (int codePoint)

Returns the trailing surrogate (a low surrogate code unit) of the surrogate pair representing the specified supplementary character (Unicode code point) in the UTF-16 encoding. If the specified character is not a supplementary character, an unspecified char is returned.

If isSupplementaryCodePoint(x) is true, then isLowSurrogate(lowSurrogate(x)) and toCodePoint(highSurrogate(x), lowSurrogate(x)) == x are also always true.

Parameters
codePoint int: a supplementary character (Unicode code point)

Returns
char the trailing surrogate code unit used to represent the character in the UTF-16 encoding

offsetByCodePoints

Added in API level 1
public static int offsetByCodePoints (CharSequence seq, 
                int index, 
                int codePointOffset)

Returns the index within the given char sequence that is offset from the given index by codePointOffset code points. Unpaired surrogates within the text range given by index and codePointOffset count as one code point each.

Parameters
seq CharSequence: the char sequence

index int: the index to be offset

codePointOffset int: the offset in code points

Returns
int the index within the char sequence

Throws
NullPointerException if seq is null.
IndexOutOfBoundsException if index is negative or larger then the length of the char sequence, or if codePointOffset is positive and the subsequence starting with index has fewer than codePointOffset code points, or if codePointOffset is negative and the subsequence before index has fewer than the absolute value of codePointOffset code points.

offsetByCodePoints

Added in API level 1
public static int offsetByCodePoints (char[] a, 
                int start, 
                int count, 
                int index, 
                int codePointOffset)

Returns the index within the given char subarray that is offset from the given index by codePointOffset code points. The start and count arguments specify a subarray of the char array. Unpaired surrogates within the text range given by index and codePointOffset count as one code point each.

Parameters
a char: the char array

start int: the index of the first char of the subarray

count int: the length of the subarray in chars

index int: the index to be offset

codePointOffset int: the offset in code points

Returns
int the index within the subarray

Throws
NullPointerException if a is null.
IndexOutOfBoundsException if start or count is negative, or if start + count is larger than the length of the given array, or if index is less than start or larger then start + count, or if codePointOffset is positive and the text range starting with index and ending with start + count - 1 has fewer than codePointOffset code points, or if codePointOffset is negative and the text range starting with start and ending with index - 1 has fewer than the absolute value of codePointOffset code points.

reverseBytes

Added in API level 1
public static char reverseBytes (char ch)

Returns the value obtained by reversing the order of the bytes in the specified char value.

Parameters
ch char: The char of which to reverse the byte order.

Returns
char the value obtained by reversing (or, equivalently, swapping) the bytes in the specified char value.

toChars

Added in API level 1
public static int toChars (int codePoint, 
                char[] dst, 
                int dstIndex)

Converts the specified character (Unicode code point) to its UTF-16 representation. If the specified code point is a BMP (Basic Multilingual Plane or Plane 0) value, the same value is stored in dst[dstIndex], and 1 is returned. If the specified code point is a supplementary character, its surrogate values are stored in dst[dstIndex] (high-surrogate) and dst[dstIndex+1] (low-surrogate), and 2 is returned.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be converted.

dst char: an array of char in which the codePoint's UTF-16 value is stored.

dstIndex int: the start index into the dst array where the converted value is stored.

Returns
int 1 if the code point is a BMP code point, 2 if the code point is a supplementary code point.

Throws
IllegalArgumentException if the specified codePoint is not a valid Unicode code point.
NullPointerException if the specified dst is null.
IndexOutOfBoundsException if dstIndex is negative or not less than dst.length, or if dst at dstIndex doesn't have enough array element(s) to store the resulting char value(s). (If dstIndex is equal to dst.length-1 and the specified codePoint is a supplementary character, the high-surrogate value is not stored in dst[dstIndex].)

toChars

Added in API level 1
public static char[] toChars (int codePoint)

Converts the specified character (Unicode code point) to its UTF-16 representation stored in a char array. If the specified code point is a BMP (Basic Multilingual Plane or Plane 0) value, the resulting char array has the same value as codePoint. If the specified code point is a supplementary code point, the resulting char array has the corresponding surrogate pair.

Parameters
codePoint int: a Unicode code point

Returns
char[] a char array having codePoint's UTF-16 representation.

Throws
IllegalArgumentException if the specified codePoint is not a valid Unicode code point.

toCodePoint

Added in API level 1
public static int toCodePoint (char high, 
                char low)

Converts the specified surrogate pair to its supplementary code point value. This method does not validate the specified surrogate pair. The caller must validate it using isSurrogatePair if necessary.

Parameters
high char: the high-surrogate code unit

low char: the low-surrogate code unit

Returns
int the supplementary code point composed from the specified surrogate pair.

toLowerCase

Added in API level 1
public static int toLowerCase (int codePoint)

Converts the character (Unicode code point) argument to lowercase using case mapping information from the UnicodeData file.

Note that Character.isLowerCase(Character.toLowerCase(codePoint)) does not always return true for some ranges of characters, particularly those that are symbols or ideographs.

In general, String#toLowerCase() should be used to map characters to lowercase. String case mapping methods have several benefits over Character case mapping methods. String case mapping methods can perform locale-sensitive mappings, context-sensitive mappings, and 1:M character mappings, whereas the Character case mapping methods cannot.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be converted.

Returns
int the lowercase equivalent of the character (Unicode code point), if any; otherwise, the character itself.

toLowerCase

Added in API level 1
public static char toLowerCase (char ch)

Converts the character argument to lowercase using case mapping information from the UnicodeData file.

Note that Character.isLowerCase(Character.toLowerCase(ch)) does not always return true for some ranges of characters, particularly those that are symbols or ideographs.

In general, String#toLowerCase() should be used to map characters to lowercase. String case mapping methods have several benefits over Character case mapping methods. String case mapping methods can perform locale-sensitive mappings, context-sensitive mappings, and 1:M character mappings, whereas the Character case mapping methods cannot.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the toLowerCase(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be converted.

Returns
char the lowercase equivalent of the character, if any; otherwise, the character itself.

toString

Added in API level 1
public String toString ()

Returns a String object representing this Character's value. The result is a string of length 1 whose sole component is the primitive char value represented by this Character object.

Returns
String a string representation of this object.

toString

Added in API level 1
public static String toString (char c)

Returns a String object representing the specified char. The result is a string of length 1 consisting solely of the specified char.

Parameters
c char: the char to be converted

Returns
String the string representation of the specified char

toString

Added in API level 35
public static String toString (int codePoint)

Returns a String object representing the specified character (Unicode code point). The result is a string of length 1 or 2, consisting solely of the specified codePoint.

Parameters
codePoint int: the codePoint to be converted

Returns
String the string representation of the specified codePoint

Throws
IllegalArgumentException if the specified codePoint is not a valid Unicode code point.

toTitleCase

Added in API level 1
public static char toTitleCase (char ch)

Converts the character argument to titlecase using case mapping information from the UnicodeData file. If a character has no explicit titlecase mapping and is not itself a titlecase char according to UnicodeData, then the uppercase mapping is returned as an equivalent titlecase mapping. If the char argument is already a titlecase char, the same char value will be returned.

Note that Character.isTitleCase(Character.toTitleCase(ch)) does not always return true for some ranges of characters.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the toTitleCase(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be converted.

Returns
char the titlecase equivalent of the character, if any; otherwise, the character itself.

toTitleCase

Added in API level 1
public static int toTitleCase (int codePoint)

Converts the character (Unicode code point) argument to titlecase using case mapping information from the UnicodeData file. If a character has no explicit titlecase mapping and is not itself a titlecase char according to UnicodeData, then the uppercase mapping is returned as an equivalent titlecase mapping. If the character argument is already a titlecase character, the same character value will be returned.

Note that Character.isTitleCase(Character.toTitleCase(codePoint)) does not always return true for some ranges of characters.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be converted.

Returns
int the titlecase equivalent of the character, if any; otherwise, the character itself.

toUpperCase

Added in API level 1
public static char toUpperCase (char ch)

Converts the character argument to uppercase using case mapping information from the UnicodeData file.

Note that Character.isUpperCase(Character.toUpperCase(ch)) does not always return true for some ranges of characters, particularly those that are symbols or ideographs.

In general, String#toUpperCase() should be used to map characters to uppercase. String case mapping methods have several benefits over Character case mapping methods. String case mapping methods can perform locale-sensitive mappings, context-sensitive mappings, and 1:M character mappings, whereas the Character case mapping methods cannot.

Note: This method cannot handle supplementary characters. To support all Unicode characters, including supplementary characters, use the toUpperCase(int) method.

Parameters
ch char: the character to be converted.

Returns
char the uppercase equivalent of the character, if any; otherwise, the character itself.

toUpperCase

Added in API level 1
public static int toUpperCase (int codePoint)

Converts the character (Unicode code point) argument to uppercase using case mapping information from the UnicodeData file.

Note that Character.isUpperCase(Character.toUpperCase(codePoint)) does not always return true for some ranges of characters, particularly those that are symbols or ideographs.

In general, String#toUpperCase() should be used to map characters to uppercase. String case mapping methods have several benefits over Character case mapping methods. String case mapping methods can perform locale-sensitive mappings, context-sensitive mappings, and 1:M character mappings, whereas the Character case mapping methods cannot.

Parameters
codePoint int: the character (Unicode code point) to be converted.

Returns
int the uppercase equivalent of the character, if any; otherwise, the character itself.

valueOf

Added in API level 1
public static Character valueOf (char c)

Returns a Character instance representing the specified char value. If a new Character instance is not required, this method should generally be used in preference to the constructor Character(char), as this method is likely to yield significantly better space and time performance by caching frequently requested values. This method will always cache values in the range '\u0000' to '\u007F', inclusive, and may cache other values outside of this range.

Parameters
c char: a char value.

Returns
Character a Character instance representing c.