How to convert a string to a char array in Java

Java provides several ways to convert a string into an array of characters (char[]). You can use the String.toCharArray() or String.chars() method to convert a string into a characters array.

Convert a string to a char[] using String.toCharArray()

The String.toCharArray() method returns an array of characters from the given string. The returned character array has the same length as the length of the string.

Here is an example:

// Declare a string
String str = "Java Protips";

// Convert string to a char array
char[] chars = str.toCharArray();

System.out.println(Arrays.toString(chars));
// [J, a, v, a,  , P, r, o, t, i, p, s]

Convert a string to a char[] using String.chars()

The String.chars() is yet another simple method to transform a string into an array of characters in Java 8 and higher, as shown below:

// Declare a string
String str = "Java Protips";

// Convert string to a char array
Character[] chars = str.chars()
        .mapToObj(c -> (char) c)
        .toArray(Character[]::new);

System.out.println(Arrays.toString(chars));
// [J, a, v, a,  , P, r, o, t, i, p, s]

Read this article if you want to convert a character array to a string in Java.

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