Remove first n characters from a String in Java

This post will discuss how to remove the first n characters from a String in Java.

You cannot modify a string in Java since they are immutable. The only way to remove the first n characters from it is to create a new String object with the first n chars removed. There are several ways to do it:

1. Using Apache Commons library

A simple, concise, and elegant solution is to use the StringUtils class from Apache Commons Lang library whose removeStart() method removes a substring from the beginning of a source string, if present. You can use it as follows:

import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;

public class Main

{

public static String removefirstNchars(String str, int n) {

if (str == null || str.length() < n) {

return str;

}

String firstNchars = str.substring(0, n);

return StringUtils.removeStart(str, firstNchars);

}

public static void main(String[] args)

{

String str = "Hello World";

int n = 6;

System.out.println(removefirstNchars(str, n)); // World

}

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2. Using `String#substring()` method

If you don’t prefer the Apache Commons library, you can use the String#substring() method to get a substring starting from the specific position in the string till its end.

public class Main

{

public static void main(String[] args)

{

String str = "Hello World";

int n = 6;

System.out.println(str.substring(n)); // World

}

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If the specified index is negative or larger than the string’s length, IndexOutOfBoundsException will be thrown. You can easily handle it by placing a length check before invoking the substring() method.

public class Main

{

public static String removefirstNchars(String str, int n) {

if (str == null || str.length() < n) {

return str;

}

return str.substring(n);

}

public static void main(String[] args)

{

String str = "Hello World";

int n = 6;

System.out.println(removefirstNchars(str, n)); // World

}

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That’s all about removing the first n characters from a String in Java.

Remove first n characters from a String in Java

1. Using Apache Commons library

2. Using String#substring() method

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2. Using `String#substring()` method