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How to convert values to string? [duplicate]

I want the Java code for converting an array of strings into an string.

Java 8+
Use String.join():
String str = String.join(",", arr);
Note that arr can also be any Iterable (such as a list), not just an array.
If you have a Stream, you can use the joining collector:
Stream.of("a", "b", "c")
.collect(Collectors.joining(","))
Legacy (Java 7 and earlier)
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
for(String s : arr) {
builder.append(s);
}
String str = builder.toString();
Alternatively, if you just want a "debug-style" dump of an array:
String str = Arrays.toString(arr);
Note that if you're really legacy (Java 1.4 and earlier) you'll need to replace StringBuilder there with StringBuffer.
Android
Use TextUtils.join():
String str = TextUtils.join(",", arr);
General notes
You can modify all the above examples depending on what characters, if any, you want in between strings.
DON'T use a string and just append to it with += in a loop like some of the answers show here. This sends the GC through the roof because you're creating and throwing away as many string objects as you have items in your array. For small arrays you might not really notice the difference, but for large ones it can be orders of magnitude slower.

Use Apache commons StringUtils.join(). It takes an array, as a parameter (and also has overloads for Iterable and Iterator parameters) and calls toString() on each element (if it is not null) to get each elements string representation. Each elements string representation is then joined into one string with a separator in between if one is specified:
String joinedString = StringUtils.join(new Object[]{"a", "b", 1}, "-");
System.out.println(joinedString);
Produces:
a-b-1

I like using Google's Guava Joiner for this, e.g.:
Joiner.on(", ").skipNulls().join("Harry", null, "Ron", "Hermione");
would produce the same String as:
new String("Harry, Ron, Hermione");
ETA: Java 8 has similar support now:
String.join(", ", "Harry", "Ron", "Hermione");
Can't see support for skipping null values, but that's easily worked around.

From Java 8, the simplest way I think is:
String[] array = { "cat", "mouse" };
String delimiter = "";
String result = String.join(delimiter, array);
This way you can choose an arbitrary delimiter.

You could do this, given an array a of primitive type:
StringBuffer result = new StringBuffer();
for (int i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
result.append( a[i] );
//result.append( optional separator );
}
String mynewstring = result.toString();

Try the Arrays.deepToString method.
Returns a string representation of the "deep contents" of the specified
array. If the array contains other arrays as elements, the string
representation contains their contents and so on. This method is
designed for converting multidimensional arrays to strings

Try the Arrays.toString overloaded methods.
Or else, try this below generic implementation:
public static void main(String... args) throws Exception {
String[] array = {"ABC", "XYZ", "PQR"};
System.out.println(new Test().join(array, ", "));
}
public <T> String join(T[] array, String cement) {
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
if(array == null || array.length == 0) {
return null;
}
for (T t : array) {
builder.append(t).append(cement);
}
builder.delete(builder.length() - cement.length(), builder.length());
return builder.toString();
}

public class ArrayToString
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
String[] strArray = new String[]{"Java", "PHP", ".NET", "PERL", "C", "COBOL"};
String newString = Arrays.toString(strArray);
newString = newString.substring(1, newString.length()-1);
System.out.println("New New String: " + newString);
}
}

You want code which produce string from arrayList,
Iterate through all elements in list and add it to your String result
you can do this in 2 ways: using String as result or StringBuffer/StringBuilder.
Example:
String result = "";
for (String s : list) {
result += s;
}
...but this isn't good practice because of performance reason. Better is using StringBuffer (threads safe) or StringBuilder which are more appropriate to adding Strings

String[] strings = new String[25000];
for (int i = 0; i < 25000; i++) strings[i] = '1234567';
String result;
result = "";
for (String s : strings) result += s;
//linear +: 5s
result = "";
for (String s : strings) result = result.concat(s);
//linear .concat: 2.5s
result = String.join("", strings);
//Java 8 .join: 3ms
Public String join(String delimiter, String[] s)
{
int ls = s.length;
switch (ls)
{
case 0: return "";
case 1: return s[0];
case 2: return s[0].concat(delimiter).concat(s[1]);
default:
int l1 = ls / 2;
String[] s1 = Arrays.copyOfRange(s, 0, l1);
String[] s2 = Arrays.copyOfRange(s, l1, ls);
return join(delimiter, s1).concat(delimiter).concat(join(delimiter, s2));
}
}
result = join("", strings);
// Divide&Conquer join: 7ms
If you don't have the choise but to use Java 6 or 7 then you should use Divide&Conquer join.

String array[]={"one","two"};
String s="";
for(int i=0;i<array.length;i++)
{
s=s+array[i];
}
System.out.print(s);

Use Apache Commons' StringUtils library's join method.
String[] stringArray = {"a","b","c"};
StringUtils.join(stringArray, ",");

When we use stream we do have more flexibility, like
map --> convert any array object to toString
filter --> remove when it is empty
join --> Adding joining character
//Deduplicate the comma character in the input string
String[] splits = input.split("\\s*,\\s*");
return Arrays.stream(splits).filter(StringUtils::isNotBlank).collect(Collectors.joining(", "));

If you know how much elements the array has, a simple way is doing this:
String appendedString = "" + array[0] + "" + array[1] + "" + array[2] + "" + array[3];

Convert array of strings into a string in Java

I want the Java code for converting an array of strings into an string.

Java 8+
Use String.join():
String str = String.join(",", arr);
Note that arr can also be any Iterable (such as a list), not just an array.
If you have a Stream, you can use the joining collector:
Stream.of("a", "b", "c")
.collect(Collectors.joining(","))
Legacy (Java 7 and earlier)
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
for(String s : arr) {
builder.append(s);
}
String str = builder.toString();
Alternatively, if you just want a "debug-style" dump of an array:
String str = Arrays.toString(arr);
Note that if you're really legacy (Java 1.4 and earlier) you'll need to replace StringBuilder there with StringBuffer.
Android
Use TextUtils.join():
String str = TextUtils.join(",", arr);
General notes
You can modify all the above examples depending on what characters, if any, you want in between strings.
DON'T use a string and just append to it with += in a loop like some of the answers show here. This sends the GC through the roof because you're creating and throwing away as many string objects as you have items in your array. For small arrays you might not really notice the difference, but for large ones it can be orders of magnitude slower.

Use Apache commons StringUtils.join(). It takes an array, as a parameter (and also has overloads for Iterable and Iterator parameters) and calls toString() on each element (if it is not null) to get each elements string representation. Each elements string representation is then joined into one string with a separator in between if one is specified:
String joinedString = StringUtils.join(new Object[]{"a", "b", 1}, "-");
System.out.println(joinedString);
Produces:
a-b-1

I like using Google's Guava Joiner for this, e.g.:
Joiner.on(", ").skipNulls().join("Harry", null, "Ron", "Hermione");
would produce the same String as:
new String("Harry, Ron, Hermione");
ETA: Java 8 has similar support now:
String.join(", ", "Harry", "Ron", "Hermione");
Can't see support for skipping null values, but that's easily worked around.

From Java 8, the simplest way I think is:
String[] array = { "cat", "mouse" };
String delimiter = "";
String result = String.join(delimiter, array);
This way you can choose an arbitrary delimiter.

You could do this, given an array a of primitive type:
StringBuffer result = new StringBuffer();
for (int i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
result.append( a[i] );
//result.append( optional separator );
}
String mynewstring = result.toString();

Try the Arrays.deepToString method.
Returns a string representation of the "deep contents" of the specified
array. If the array contains other arrays as elements, the string
representation contains their contents and so on. This method is
designed for converting multidimensional arrays to strings

Try the Arrays.toString overloaded methods.
Or else, try this below generic implementation:
public static void main(String... args) throws Exception {
String[] array = {"ABC", "XYZ", "PQR"};
System.out.println(new Test().join(array, ", "));
}
public <T> String join(T[] array, String cement) {
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
if(array == null || array.length == 0) {
return null;
}
for (T t : array) {
builder.append(t).append(cement);
}
builder.delete(builder.length() - cement.length(), builder.length());
return builder.toString();
}

public class ArrayToString
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
String[] strArray = new String[]{"Java", "PHP", ".NET", "PERL", "C", "COBOL"};
String newString = Arrays.toString(strArray);
newString = newString.substring(1, newString.length()-1);
System.out.println("New New String: " + newString);
}
}

You want code which produce string from arrayList,
Iterate through all elements in list and add it to your String result
you can do this in 2 ways: using String as result or StringBuffer/StringBuilder.
Example:
String result = "";
for (String s : list) {
result += s;
}
...but this isn't good practice because of performance reason. Better is using StringBuffer (threads safe) or StringBuilder which are more appropriate to adding Strings

String[] strings = new String[25000];
for (int i = 0; i < 25000; i++) strings[i] = '1234567';
String result;
result = "";
for (String s : strings) result += s;
//linear +: 5s
result = "";
for (String s : strings) result = result.concat(s);
//linear .concat: 2.5s
result = String.join("", strings);
//Java 8 .join: 3ms
Public String join(String delimiter, String[] s)
{
int ls = s.length;
switch (ls)
{
case 0: return "";
case 1: return s[0];
case 2: return s[0].concat(delimiter).concat(s[1]);
default:
int l1 = ls / 2;
String[] s1 = Arrays.copyOfRange(s, 0, l1);
String[] s2 = Arrays.copyOfRange(s, l1, ls);
return join(delimiter, s1).concat(delimiter).concat(join(delimiter, s2));
}
}
result = join("", strings);
// Divide&Conquer join: 7ms
If you don't have the choise but to use Java 6 or 7 then you should use Divide&Conquer join.

String array[]={"one","two"};
String s="";
for(int i=0;i<array.length;i++)
{
s=s+array[i];
}
System.out.print(s);

Use Apache Commons' StringUtils library's join method.
String[] stringArray = {"a","b","c"};
StringUtils.join(stringArray, ",");

When we use stream we do have more flexibility, like
map --> convert any array object to toString
filter --> remove when it is empty
join --> Adding joining character
//Deduplicate the comma character in the input string
String[] splits = input.split("\\s*,\\s*");
return Arrays.stream(splits).filter(StringUtils::isNotBlank).collect(Collectors.joining(", "));

If you know how much elements the array has, a simple way is doing this:
String appendedString = "" + array[0] + "" + array[1] + "" + array[2] + "" + array[3];

A method to reverse effect of java String.split()? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
What's the best way to build a string of delimited items in Java?
(37 answers)
Closed 4 years ago.
I am looking for a method to combine an array of strings into a delimited
String. An opposite to split().
Wanted to ask the forum before I try writing my own (since the JDK has everything)

There's no method in the JDK for this that I'm aware of. Apache Commons Lang has various overloaded join() methods in the StringUtils class that do what you want.

There has been an open feature request since at least 2009. The long and short of it is that it will part of the functionality of JDK 8's java.util.StringJoiner class. http://download.java.net/lambda/b81/docs/api/java/util/StringJoiner.html
Here is the Oracle issue if you are interested.
http://bugs.sun.com/view_bug.do?bug_id=5015163
Here is an example of the new JDK 8 StringJoiner on an array of String
String[] a = new String[]{"first","second","third"};
StringJoiner sj = new StringJoiner(",");
for(String s:a) sj.add(s);
System.out.println(sj); //first,second,third
A utility method in String makes this even simpler:
String s = String.join(",", stringArray);

You can sneak this functionality out of the Arrays utility package.
import java.util.Arrays;
...
String delim = ":",
csv_record = "Field0:Field1:Field2",
fields[] = csv_record.split(delim);
String rebuilt_record = Arrays.toString(fields)
.replace(", ", delim)
.replaceAll("[\\[\\]]", "");

I got the following example here
/*
7) Join Strings using separator >>>AB$#$CD$#$EF
*/
import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
public class StringUtilsTrial {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Join all Strings in the Array into a Single String, separated by $#$
System.out.println("7) Join Strings using separator >>>"
+ StringUtils.join(new String[] { "AB", "CD", "EF" }, "$#$"));
}
}

Google also provides a joiner class in their Google Collections library:
Joiner API
Google Collections

There are several examples on DZone Snippets if you want to roll your own that works with a Collection. For example:
public static String join(AbstractCollection<String> s, String delimiter) {
if (s == null || s.isEmpty()) return "";
Iterator<String> iter = s.iterator();
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder(iter.next());
while( iter.hasNext() )
{
builder.append(delimiter).append(iter.next());
}
return builder.toString();
}

If you have an int[], Arrays.toString() is the easiest way.

Based on all the previous answers:
public static String join(Iterable<? extends Object> elements, CharSequence separator)
{
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
if (elements != null)
{
Iterator<? extends Object> iter = elements.iterator();
if(iter.hasNext())
{
builder.append( String.valueOf( iter.next() ) );
while(iter.hasNext())
{
builder
.append( separator )
.append( String.valueOf( iter.next() ) );
}
}
}
return builder.toString();
}

For Android: in
android.text.TextUtils
there are methods:
public static String join (CharSequence delimiter, Iterable tokens)
public static String join (CharSequence delimiter, Object[] tokens)
Returns a string containing the tokens joined by delimiters.
tokens -- an array objects to be joined. Strings will be formed from the objects by calling object.toString().

Since JDK8 I love Streams and Lambdas a lot, so I would suggest:
public static String join( String delimiter, String[] array )
{
return Arrays.asList( array ).stream().collect( Collectors.joining( delimiter ) );
}

For the sake of completeness, I'd like to add that you cannot reverse String#split in general, as it accepts a regular expression.
"hello__world".split("_+"); Yields ["hello", "world"].
"hello_world".split("_+"); Yields ["hello", "world"].
These yield identical results from a different starting point. splitting is not a one-to-one operation, and is thus non-reversible.
This all being said, if you assume your parameter to be a fixed string, not regex, then you can certainly do this using one of the many posted answers.

This one is not bad too :
public static String join(String delimitor,String ... subkeys) {
String result = null;
if(null!=subkeys && subkeys.length>0) {
StringBuffer joinBuffer = new StringBuffer(subkeys[0]);
for(int idx=1;idx<subkeys.length;idx++) {
joinBuffer.append(delimitor).append(subkeys[idx]);
}
result = joinBuffer.toString();
}
return result;
}

I wrote this one:
public static String join(Collection<String> col, String delim) {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
Iterator<String> iter = col.iterator();
if (iter.hasNext())
sb.append(iter.next());
while (iter.hasNext()) {
sb.append(delim);
sb.append(iter.next());
}
return sb.toString();
}
Collection isn't supported by JSP, so for TLD I wrote:
public static String join(List<?> list, String delim) {
int len = list.size();
if (len == 0)
return "";
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(list.get(0).toString());
for (int i = 1; i < len; i++) {
sb.append(delim);
sb.append(list.get(i).toString());
}
return sb.toString();
}
and put to .tld file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<taglib version="2.1" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
<function>
<name>join</name>
<function-class>com.core.util.ReportUtil</function-class>
<function-signature>java.lang.String join(java.util.List, java.lang.String)</function-signature>
</function>
</taglib>
and use it in JSP files as:
<%#taglib prefix="funnyFmt" uri="tag:com.core.util,2013:funnyFmt"%>
${funnyFmt:join(books, ", ")}

Below code gives a basic idea. This is not best solution though.
public static String splitJoin(String sourceStr, String delim,boolean trim,boolean ignoreEmpty){
return join(Arrays.asList(sourceStr.split(delim)), delim, ignoreEmpty);
}
public static String join(List<?> list, String delim, boolean ignoreEmpty) {
int len = list.size();
if (len == 0)
return "";
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(list.get(0).toString());
for (int i = 1; i < len; i++) {
if (ignoreEmpty && !StringUtils.isBlank(list.get(i).toString())) {
sb.append(delim);
sb.append(list.get(i).toString().trim());
}
}
return sb.toString();
}

If you use jdk8 see #Nathaniel Johnson's answer as that is better.
I think that many of the answer here are complex or not easily read. With branch prediction so efficient why you simply not use a if statement?
public static String join(List<String> fooList){
if (fooList.isEmpty()) return "";
StringBuilder sb = null;
for (String element : fooList) {
if (sb == null) {
sb = new StringBuilder();
} else {
sb.append(", ");
}
sb.append(element);
}
return sb.toString();
}
Something that should be mentioned is that Apache uses a simple for loop with an if statement inside it like this (it uses an array as its index to know the first element), and openjdk 8 does the same but in separated methods calls instead of a simple loop.

I like this better:
public String join(Collection<String> strCollection, String delimiter) {
String joined = "";
int noOfItems = 0;
for (String item : strCollection) {
joined += item;
if (++noOfItems < strCollection.size())
joined += delimiter;
}
return joined;
}
It is the neatest solution I have found so far.
(Don't worry about the use of raw String objects instead of StringBuilder. Modern Java compilers use StringBuilder anyway, but this code is more readable).

The most sophisticated way for creating comma-separated Strings from a Collection/Array/List?

During my work with databases I noticed that I write query strings and in this strings I have to put several restrictions in the where-clause from a list/array/collection. Should look like this:
select * from customer
where customer.id in (34, 26, ..., 2);
You can simplify this by reducing this to the question that you have collection of strings and want to create a comma-separated list of this strings in just one string.
My approach I have used so far is something like that:
String result = "";
boolean first = true;
for(String string : collectionOfStrings) {
if(first) {
result+=string;
first=false;
} else {
result+=","+string;
}
}
But this is as you can see very ugly. You cannot see what happens there on the first look, especially when the constructed strings (like every SQL query) is getting complicated.
What is your (more) elegant way?

Use the Google Guava API's join method:
Joiner.on(",").join(collectionOfStrings);

Note: This answers was good when it was written 11 years ago, but now there are far better options to do this more cleanly in a single line, both using only Java built-in classes or using a utility library. See other answers below.
Since strings are immutable, you may want to use the StringBuilder class if you're going to alter the String in the code.
The StringBuilder class can be seen as a mutable String object which allocates more memory when its content is altered.
The original suggestion in the question can be written even more clearly and efficiently, by taking care of the redundant trailing comma:
StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
for(String string : collectionOfStrings) {
result.append(string);
result.append(",");
}
return result.length() > 0 ? result.substring(0, result.length() - 1): "";

I just looked at code that did this today. This is a variation on AviewAnew's answer.
collectionOfStrings = /* source string collection */;
String csList = StringUtils.join(collectionOfStrings.toArray(), ",");
The StringUtils ( <-- commons.lang 2.x, or commons.lang 3.x link) we used is from Apache Commons.

The way I write that loop is:
StringBuilder buff = new StringBuilder();
String sep = "";
for (String str : strs) {
buff.append(sep);
buff.append(str);
sep = ",";
}
return buff.toString();
Don't worry about the performance of sep. An assignment is very fast. Hotspot tends to peel off the first iteration of a loop anyway (as it often has to deal with oddities such as null and mono/bimorphic inlining checks).
If you use it lots (more than once), put it in a shared method.
There is another question on stackoverflow dealing with how to insert a list of ids into an SQL statement.

Since Java 8, you can use:
String String.join(CharSequence delimiter, CharSequence... elements)
String String.join(CharSequence delimiter, Iterable<? extends CharSequence> elements)
If you want to take non-Strings and join them to a String, you can use Collectors.joining(CharSequence delimiter), e.g.:
String joined = anyCollection.stream().map(Object::toString).collect(Collectors.joining(","));

I found the iterator idiom elegant, because it has a test for more elements (ommited null/empty test for brevity):
public static String convert(List<String> list) {
String res = "";
for (Iterator<String> iterator = list.iterator(); iterator.hasNext();) {
res += iterator.next() + (iterator.hasNext() ? "," : "");
}
return res;
}

There's a lot of manual solutions to this, but I wanted to reiterate and update Julie's answer above. Use google collections Joiner class.
Joiner.on(", ").join(34, 26, ..., 2)
It handles var args, iterables and arrays and properly handles separators of more than one char (unlike gimmel's answer). It will also handle null values in your list if you need it to.

String.join(", ", collectionOfStrings)
available in the Java8 api.
alternative to (without the need to add a google guava dependency):
Joiner.on(",").join(collectionOfStrings);

Here's an incredibly generic version that I've built from a combination of the previous suggestions:
public static <T> String buildCommaSeparatedString(Collection<T> values) {
if (values==null || values.isEmpty()) return "";
StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
for (T val : values) {
result.append(val);
result.append(",");
}
return result.substring(0, result.length() - 1);
}

You could try
List collections = Arrays.asList(34, 26, "...", 2);
String asString = collection.toString();
// justValues = "34, 26, ..., 2"
String justValues = asString.substring(1, asString.length()-1);

This will be the shortest solution so far, except of using Guava or Apache Commons
String res = "";
for (String i : values) {
res += res.isEmpty() ? i : ","+i;
}
Good with 0,1 and n element list. But you'll need to check for null list.
I use this in GWT, so I'm good without StringBuilder there. And for short lists with just couple of elements its ok too elsewhere ;)

In case someone stumbled over this in more recent times, I have added a simple variation using Java 8 reduce(). It also includes some of the already mentioned solutions by others:
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
import com.google.common.base.Joiner;
public class Dummy {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<String> strings = Arrays.asList("abc", "de", "fg");
String commaSeparated = strings
.stream()
.reduce((s1, s2) -> {return s1 + "," + s2; })
.get();
System.out.println(commaSeparated);
System.out.println(Joiner.on(',').join(strings));
System.out.println(StringUtils.join(strings, ","));
}
}

In Android you should use this:
TextUtils.join(",",collectionOfStrings.toArray());

I think it's not a good idea contruct the sql concatenating the where clause values like you are doing :
SELECT.... FROM.... WHERE ID IN( value1, value2,....valueN)
Where valueX comes from a list of Strings.
First, if you are comparing Strings they must be quoted, an this it isn't trivial if the Strings could have a quote inside.
Second, if the values comes from the user,or other system, then a SQL injection attack is possible.
It's a lot more verbose but what you should do is create a String like this:
SELECT.... FROM.... WHERE ID IN( ?, ?,....?)
and then bind the variables with Statement.setString(nParameter,parameterValue).

Just another method to deal with this problem. Not the most short, but it is efficient and gets the job done.
/**
* Creates a comma-separated list of values from given collection.
*
* #param <T> Value type.
* #param values Value collection.
* #return Comma-separated String of values.
*/
public <T> String toParameterList(Collection<T> values) {
if (values == null || values.isEmpty()) {
return ""; // Depending on how you want to deal with this case...
}
StringBuilder result = new StringBuilder();
Iterator<T> i = values.iterator();
result.append(i.next().toString());
while (i.hasNext()) {
result.append(",").append(i.next().toString());
}
return result.toString();
}

There are some third-party Java libraries that provide string join method, but you probably don't want to start using a library just for something simple like that. I would just create a helper method like this, which I think is a bit better than your version, It uses StringBuffer, which will be more efficient if you need to join many strings, and it works on a collection of any type.
public static <T> String join(Collection<T> values)
{
StringBuffer ret = new StringBuffer();
for (T value : values)
{
if (ret.length() > 0) ret.append(",");
ret.append(value);
}
return ret.toString();
}
Another suggestion with using Collection.toString() is shorter, but that relies on Collection.toString() returning a string in a very specific format, which I would personally not want to rely on.

If you use Spring, you can do:
StringUtils.arrayToCommaDelimitedString(
collectionOfStrings.toArray()
)
(package org.springframework.util)

List<String> collectionOfStrings = // List of string to concat
String csvStrings = StringUtils.collectionToDelimitedString(collectionOfStrings, ",");
StringUtils from springframeowrk:spring-core

I'm not sure how "sophisticated" this is, but it's certainly a bit shorter. It will work with various different types of collection e.g. Set<Integer>, List<String>, etc.
public static final String toSqlList(Collection<?> values) {
String collectionString = values.toString();
// Convert the square brackets produced by Collection.toString() to round brackets used by SQL
return "(" + collectionString.substring(1, collectionString.length() - 1) + ")";
}
Exercise for reader: modify this method so that it correctly handles a null/empty collection :)

What makes the code ugly is the special-handling for the first case. Most of the lines in this small snippet are devoted, not to doing the code's routine job, but to handling that special case. And that's what alternatives like gimel's solve, by moving the special handling outside the loop. There is one special case (well, you could see both start and end as special cases - but only one of them needs to be treated specially), so handling it inside the loop is unnecessarily complicated.

I've just checked-in a test for my library dollar:
#Test
public void join() {
List<Integer> list = Arrays.asList(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
String string = $(list).join(",");
}
it create a fluent wrapper around lists/arrays/strings/etc using only one static import: $.
NB:
using ranges the previous list can be re-writed as $(1, 5).join(",")

The nice thing about the IN expression is that if you have repeated values, it does not change the result. So, just duplicate the first item and process the entire list. This assumes that there is at least one item in the list. If there are no items, I'd suggest checking for that first and then not executing the SQL at all.
This will do the trick, is obvious in what it is doing and does not rely on any external libraries:
StringBuffer inString = new StringBuffer(listOfIDs.get(0).toString());
for (Long currentID : listOfIDs) {
inString.append(",").append(currentID);
}

While I think your best bet is to use Joiner from Guava, if I were to code it by hand I find this approach more elegant that the 'first' flag or chopping the last comma off.
private String commas(Iterable<String> strings) {
StringBuilder buffer = new StringBuilder();
Iterator<String> it = strings.iterator();
if (it.hasNext()) {
buffer.append(it.next());
while (it.hasNext()) {
buffer.append(',');
buffer.append(it.next());
}
}
return buffer.toString();
}

if you have an array you can do:
Arrays.asList(parameters).toString()

Another option, based on what I see here (with slight modifications).
public static String toString(int[] numbers) {
StringBuilder res = new StringBuilder();
for (int number : numbers) {
if (res.length() != 0) {
res.append(',');
}
res.append(number);
}
return res.toString();
}

Join 'methods' are available in Arrays and the classes that extend AbstractCollections but doesn't override toString() method (like virtually all collections in java.util).
For instance:
String s= java.util.Arrays.toString(collectionOfStrings.toArray());
s = s.substing(1, s.length()-1);// [] are guaranteed to be there
That's quite weird way since it works only for numbers alike data SQL wise.

You may be able to use LINQ (to SQL), and you may be able to make use of the Dynamic Query LINQ sample from MS. http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/01/07/dynamic-linq-part-1-using-the-linq-dynamic-query-library.aspx

java.util.List<String> lista = new java.util.ArrayList<String>();
lista.add("Hola");
lista.add("Julio");
System.out.println(lista.toString().replace('[','(').replace(']',')'));
$~(Hola, Julio)

String commaSeparatedNames = namesList.toString().replaceAll( "[\\[|\\]| ]", "" ); // replace [ or ] or blank
The string representation consists of a list of the collection's
elements in the order they are returned by its iterator, enclosed in
square brackets ("[]"). Adjacent elements are separated by the
characters ", " (comma and space).
AbstractCollection javadoc

List token=new ArrayList(result);
final StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
for (int i =0; i < tokens.size(); i++){
builder.append(tokens.get(i));
if(i != tokens.size()-1){
builder.append(TOKEN_DELIMITER);
}
}
builder.toString();

What's the best way to build a string of delimited items in Java?

While working in a Java app, I recently needed to assemble a comma-delimited list of values to pass to another web service without knowing how many elements there would be in advance. The best I could come up with off the top of my head was something like this:
public String appendWithDelimiter( String original, String addition, String delimiter ) {
if ( original.equals( "" ) ) {
return addition;
} else {
return original + delimiter + addition;
}
}
String parameterString = "";
if ( condition ) parameterString = appendWithDelimiter( parameterString, "elementName", "," );
if ( anotherCondition ) parameterString = appendWithDelimiter( parameterString, "anotherElementName", "," );
I realize this isn't particularly efficient, since there are strings being created all over the place, but I was going for clarity more than optimization.
In Ruby, I can do something like this instead, which feels much more elegant:
parameterArray = [];
parameterArray << "elementName" if condition;
parameterArray << "anotherElementName" if anotherCondition;
parameterString = parameterArray.join(",");
But since Java lacks a join command, I couldn't figure out anything equivalent.
So, what's the best way to do this in Java?

Pre Java 8:
Apache's commons lang is your friend here - it provides a join method very similar to the one you refer to in Ruby:
StringUtils.join(java.lang.Iterable,char)
Java 8:
Java 8 provides joining out of the box via StringJoiner and String.join(). The snippets below show how you can use them:
StringJoiner
StringJoiner joiner = new StringJoiner(",");
joiner.add("01").add("02").add("03");
String joinedString = joiner.toString(); // "01,02,03"
String.join(CharSequence delimiter, CharSequence... elements))
String joinedString = String.join(" - ", "04", "05", "06"); // "04 - 05 - 06"
String.join(CharSequence delimiter, Iterable<? extends CharSequence> elements)
List<String> strings = new LinkedList<>();
strings.add("Java");strings.add("is");
strings.add("cool");
String message = String.join(" ", strings);
//message returned is: "Java is cool"

You could write a little join-style utility method that works on java.util.Lists
public static String join(List<String> list, String delim) {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
String loopDelim = "";
for(String s : list) {
sb.append(loopDelim);
sb.append(s);
loopDelim = delim;
}
return sb.toString();
}
Then use it like so:
List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
if( condition ) list.add("elementName");
if( anotherCondition ) list.add("anotherElementName");
join(list, ",");

In the case of Android, the StringUtils class from commons isn't available, so for this I used
android.text.TextUtils.join(CharSequence delimiter, Iterable tokens)
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/text/TextUtils.html

The Google's Guava library has com.google.common.base.Joiner class which helps to solve such tasks.
Samples:
"My pets are: " + Joiner.on(", ").join(Arrays.asList("rabbit", "parrot", "dog"));
// returns "My pets are: rabbit, parrot, dog"
Joiner.on(" AND ").join(Arrays.asList("field1=1" , "field2=2", "field3=3"));
// returns "field1=1 AND field2=2 AND field3=3"
Joiner.on(",").skipNulls().join(Arrays.asList("London", "Moscow", null, "New York", null, "Paris"));
// returns "London,Moscow,New York,Paris"
Joiner.on(", ").useForNull("Team held a draw").join(Arrays.asList("FC Barcelona", "FC Bayern", null, null, "Chelsea FC", "AC Milan"));
// returns "FC Barcelona, FC Bayern, Team held a draw, Team held a draw, Chelsea FC, AC Milan"
Here is an article about Guava's string utilities.

In Java 8 you can use String.join():
List<String> list = Arrays.asList("foo", "bar", "baz");
String joined = String.join(" and ", list); // "foo and bar and baz"
Also have a look at this answer for a Stream API example.

in Java 8 you can do this like:
list.stream().map(Object::toString)
.collect(Collectors.joining(delimiter));
if list has nulls you can use:
list.stream().map(String::valueOf)
.collect(Collectors.joining(delimiter))
it also supports prefix and suffix:
list.stream().map(String::valueOf)
.collect(Collectors.joining(delimiter, prefix, suffix));

You can generalize it, but there's no join in Java, as you well say.
This might work better.
public static String join(Iterable<? extends CharSequence> s, String delimiter) {
Iterator<? extends CharSequence> iter = s.iterator();
if (!iter.hasNext()) return "";
StringBuilder buffer = new StringBuilder(iter.next());
while (iter.hasNext()) buffer.append(delimiter).append(iter.next());
return buffer.toString();
}

Use an approach based on java.lang.StringBuilder! ("A mutable sequence of characters. ")
Like you mentioned, all those string concatenations are creating Strings all over. StringBuilder won't do that.
Why StringBuilder instead of StringBuffer? From the StringBuilder javadoc:
Where possible, it is recommended that this class be used in preference to StringBuffer as it will be faster under most implementations.

I would use Google Collections. There is a nice Join facility.
http://google-collections.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/javadoc/index.html?com/google/common/base/Join.html
But if I wanted to write it on my own,
package util;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Iterable;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.Iterator;
public class Utils {
// accept a collection of objects, since all objects have toString()
public static String join(String delimiter, Iterable<? extends Object> objs) {
if (objs.isEmpty()) {
return "";
}
Iterator<? extends Object> iter = objs.iterator();
StringBuilder buffer = new StringBuilder();
buffer.append(iter.next());
while (iter.hasNext()) {
buffer.append(delimiter).append(iter.next());
}
return buffer.toString();
}
// for convenience
public static String join(String delimiter, Object... objs) {
ArrayList<Object> list = new ArrayList<Object>();
Collections.addAll(list, objs);
return join(delimiter, list);
}
}
I think it works better with an object collection, since now you don't have to convert your objects to strings before you join them.

Apache commons StringUtils class has a join method.

Java 8
stringCollection.stream().collect(Collectors.joining(", "));

Java 8 Native Type
List<Integer> example;
example.add(1);
example.add(2);
example.add(3);
...
example.stream().collect(Collectors.joining(","));
Java 8 Custom Object:
List<Person> person;
...
person.stream().map(Person::getAge).collect(Collectors.joining(","));

Use StringBuilder and class Separator
StringBuilder buf = new StringBuilder();
Separator sep = new Separator(", ");
for (String each : list) {
buf.append(sep).append(each);
}
Separator wraps a delimiter. The delimiter is returned by Separator's toString method, unless on the first call which returns the empty string!
Source code for class Separator
public class Separator {
private boolean skipFirst;
private final String value;
public Separator() {
this(", ");
}
public Separator(String value) {
this.value = value;
this.skipFirst = true;
}
public void reset() {
skipFirst = true;
}
public String toString() {
String sep = skipFirst ? "" : value;
skipFirst = false;
return sep;
}
}

You can use Java's StringBuilder type for this. There's also StringBuffer, but it contains extra thread safety logic that is often unnecessary.

And a minimal one (if you don't want to include Apache Commons or Gauva into project dependencies just for the sake of joining strings)
/**
*
* #param delim : String that should be kept in between the parts
* #param parts : parts that needs to be joined
* #return a String that's formed by joining the parts
*/
private static final String join(String delim, String... parts) {
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < parts.length - 1; i++) {
builder.append(parts[i]).append(delim);
}
if(parts.length > 0){
builder.append(parts[parts.length - 1]);
}
return builder.toString();
}

Why not write your own join() method? It would take as parameters collection of Strings and a delimiter String. Within the method iterate over the collection and build up your result in a StringBuffer.

If you are using Spring MVC then you can try following steps.
import org.springframework.util.StringUtils;
List<String> groupIds = new List<String>;
groupIds.add("a");
groupIds.add("b");
groupIds.add("c");
String csv = StringUtils.arrayToCommaDelimitedString(groupIds.toArray());
It will result to a,b,c

If you're using Eclipse Collections, you can use makeString() or appendString().
makeString() returns a String representation, similar to toString().
It has three forms
makeString(start, separator, end)
makeString(separator) defaults start and end to empty strings
makeString() defaults the separator to ", " (comma and space)
Code example:
MutableList<Integer> list = FastList.newListWith(1, 2, 3);
assertEquals("[1/2/3]", list.makeString("[", "/", "]"));
assertEquals("1/2/3", list.makeString("/"));
assertEquals("1, 2, 3", list.makeString());
assertEquals(list.toString(), list.makeString("[", ", ", "]"));
appendString() is similar to makeString(), but it appends to an Appendable (like StringBuilder) and is void. It has the same three forms, with an additional first argument, the Appendable.
MutableList<Integer> list = FastList.newListWith(1, 2, 3);
Appendable appendable = new StringBuilder();
list.appendString(appendable, "[", "/", "]");
assertEquals("[1/2/3]", appendable.toString());
If you can't convert your collection to an Eclipse Collections type, just adapt it with the relevant adapter.
List<Object> list = ...;
ListAdapter.adapt(list).makeString(",");
Note: I am a committer for Eclipse collections.

You should probably use a StringBuilder with the append method to construct your result, but otherwise this is as good of a solution as Java has to offer.

Why don't you do in Java the same thing you are doing in ruby, that is creating the delimiter separated string only after you've added all the pieces to the array?
ArrayList<String> parms = new ArrayList<String>();
if (someCondition) parms.add("someString");
if (anotherCondition) parms.add("someOtherString");
// ...
String sep = ""; StringBuffer b = new StringBuffer();
for (String p: parms) {
b.append(sep);
b.append(p);
sep = "yourDelimiter";
}
You may want to move that for loop in a separate helper method, and also use StringBuilder instead of StringBuffer...
Edit: fixed the order of appends.

With Java 5 variable args, so you don't have to stuff all your strings into a collection or array explicitly:
import junit.framework.Assert;
import org.junit.Test;
public class StringUtil
{
public static String join(String delim, String... strings)
{
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
if (strings != null)
{
for (String str : strings)
{
if (builder.length() > 0)
{
builder.append(delim).append(" ");
}
builder.append(str);
}
}
return builder.toString();
}
#Test
public void joinTest()
{
Assert.assertEquals("", StringUtil.join(",", null));
Assert.assertEquals("", StringUtil.join(",", ""));
Assert.assertEquals("", StringUtil.join(",", new String[0]));
Assert.assertEquals("test", StringUtil.join(",", "test"));
Assert.assertEquals("foo, bar", StringUtil.join(",", "foo", "bar"));
Assert.assertEquals("foo, bar, x", StringUtil.join(",", "foo", "bar", "x"));
}
}

For those who are in a Spring context their StringUtils class is useful as well:
There are many useful shortcuts like:
collectionToCommaDelimitedString(Collection coll)
collectionToDelimitedString(Collection coll, String delim)
arrayToDelimitedString(Object[] arr, String delim)
and many others.
This can be helpful if you are not already using Java 8 and you are already in a Spring context.
I prefer it against the Apache Commons (although very good as well) for the Collection support which is easier like this:
// Encoding Set<String> to String delimited
String asString = org.springframework.util.StringUtils.collectionToDelimitedString(codes, ";");
// Decoding String delimited to Set
Set<String> collection = org.springframework.util.StringUtils.commaDelimitedListToSet(asString);

You can try something like this:
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
if (condition) { sb.append("elementName").append(","); }
if (anotherCondition) { sb.append("anotherElementName").append(","); }
String parameterString = sb.toString();

So basically something like this:
public static String appendWithDelimiter(String original, String addition, String delimiter) {
if (original.equals("")) {
return addition;
} else {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(original.length() + addition.length() + delimiter.length());
sb.append(original);
sb.append(delimiter);
sb.append(addition);
return sb.toString();
}
}

Don't know if this really is any better, but at least it's using StringBuilder, which may be slightly more efficient.
Down below is a more generic approach if you can build up the list of parameters BEFORE doing any parameter delimiting.
// Answers real question
public String appendWithDelimiters(String delimiter, String original, String addition) {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(original);
if(sb.length()!=0) {
sb.append(delimiter).append(addition);
} else {
sb.append(addition);
}
return sb.toString();
}
// A more generic case.
// ... means a list of indeterminate length of Strings.
public String appendWithDelimitersGeneric(String delimiter, String... strings) {
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for (String string : strings) {
if(sb.length()!=0) {
sb.append(delimiter).append(string);
} else {
sb.append(string);
}
}
return sb.toString();
}
public void testAppendWithDelimiters() {
String string = appendWithDelimitersGeneric(",", "string1", "string2", "string3");
}

Your approach is not too bad, but you should use a StringBuffer instead of using the + sign. The + has the big disadvantage that a new String instance is being created for each single operation. The longer your string gets, the bigger the overhead. So using a StringBuffer should be the fastest way:
public StringBuffer appendWithDelimiter( StringBuffer original, String addition, String delimiter ) {
if ( original == null ) {
StringBuffer buffer = new StringBuffer();
buffer.append(addition);
return buffer;
} else {
buffer.append(delimiter);
buffer.append(addition);
return original;
}
}
After you have finished creating your string simply call toString() on the returned StringBuffer.

Instead of using string concatenation, you should use StringBuilder if your code is not threaded, and StringBuffer if it is.

You're making this a little more complicated than it has to be. Let's start with the end of your example:
String parameterString = "";
if ( condition ) parameterString = appendWithDelimiter( parameterString, "elementName", "," );
if ( anotherCondition ) parameterString = appendWithDelimiter( parameterString, "anotherElementName", "," );
With the small change of using a StringBuilder instead of a String, this becomes:
StringBuilder parameterString = new StringBuilder();
if (condition) parameterString.append("elementName").append(",");
if (anotherCondition) parameterString.append("anotherElementName").append(",");
...
When you're done (I assume you have to check a few other conditions as well), just make sure you remove the tailing comma with a command like this:
if (parameterString.length() > 0)
parameterString.deleteCharAt(parameterString.length() - 1);
And finally, get the string you want with
parameterString.toString();
You could also replace the "," in the second call to append with a generic delimiter string that can be set to anything. If you have a list of things you know you need to append (non-conditionally), you could put this code inside a method that takes a list of strings.

//Note: if you have access to Java5+,
//use StringBuilder in preference to StringBuffer.
//All that has to be replaced is the class name.
//StringBuffer will work in Java 1.4, though.
appendWithDelimiter( StringBuffer buffer, String addition,
String delimiter ) {
if ( buffer.length() == 0) {
buffer.append(addition);
} else {
buffer.append(delimiter);
buffer.append(addition);
}
}
StringBuffer parameterBuffer = new StringBuffer();
if ( condition ) {
appendWithDelimiter(parameterBuffer, "elementName", "," );
}
if ( anotherCondition ) {
appendWithDelimiter(parameterBuffer, "anotherElementName", "," );
}
//Finally, to return a string representation, call toString() when returning.
return parameterBuffer.toString();

So a couple of things you might do to get the feel that it seems like you're looking for:
1) Extend List class - and add the join method to it. The join method would simply do the work of concatenating and adding the delimiter (which could be a param to the join method)
2) It looks like Java 7 is going to be adding extension methods to java - which allows you just to attach a specific method on to a class: so you could write that join method and add it as an extension method to List or even to Collection.
Solution 1 is probably the only realistic one, now, though since Java 7 isn't out yet :) But it should work just fine.
To use both of these, you'd just add all your items to the List or Collection as usual, and then call the new custom method to 'join' them.