Salesforce Apex String Class Guide

The approach of this article is to provide solutions to common tasks/problems concerning Apex Strings. Click on the link, in case you are looking for the Apex Reference Guide of the String Class.

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Salesforce Apex String Methods

Before we dive into the solutions for common tasks with strings, let’s get to know some common Salesforce Apex String methods.

String methods Salesforce:

Split

Need to convert a String to a list or array. The split function is there for you.

String fruits = '  apple  ,  banana , orange  ';
String[] result = fruits.trim().split('\s*,\s*');
System.debug(result);
// => ('apple','banana','orange')

Follow the link for more about the Salesforce Apex Split method.

Contains

The contains method lets you check if string contains a substring.

String text = 'I am John.';
Boolean result = text.contains('John');
System.assertEquals(true, result);

Be aware, the contains method is case-sensitive.

String text = 'I am John.';
Boolean result = text.contains('john');
System.assertEquals(false, result);

Follow the link for more about the Salesforce Apex Contains method.

Replace

Apex offers two methods to replace strings within a string. The most common is the replace method. Just pass in which string should be replaced by what string.

String result = '123-456-789'.replace('-','+');
System.assertEquals('123+456+789',result);

Follow the link for more about the Salesforce Apex Replace method.

String replace all

A more advanced replace scenario is using replaceAll. In the example we are replacing all numbers with plus signs.

String result = '123-456-789'.replaceAll('[\d]','+');
System.assertEquals('+++-+++-+++',result);

ValueOf

The valueOf methods of different types are used to do type conversions.

Here is an example of how to convert a number to a string.

Integer aNumber = 123;
String result = String.valueOf(aNumber);
System.assertEquals('123', result);

You find more examples with other types in the conversion chapter of this article.

StartsWith

This is how to check if a Salesforce Apex string starts with a certain string.

String fruit = 'apple';
System.assertEquals(true, fruit.startsWith('a'));
System.assertEquals(false, fruit.startsWith('A'));

Note: The startsWith method is case-sensitive.

If you want to do a case-insensitive check if a string begins with a another string, use the startsWithIgnoreCase method.

System.assertEquals(true, 'apple'.startsWithIgnoreCase('A'));

EndsWith

This is how to check if a Salesforce Apex string ends with a certain string.

String fruit = 'apple';
System.assertEquals(true, fruit.endsWith('e'));
System.assertEquals(false, fruit.endsWith('E'));

Note: The endsWith method is case-sensitive.

If you want to do a case-insensitive check if a string end with a another string, use the endsWithIgnoreCase method.

System.assertEquals(true, 'apple'.endsWithIgnoreCase('E'));

String manipulation

Here you find lots of examples for modifying strings, like concating, joining, splitting, appending and replacing strings.

String concatenation / Append String

To concat strings with Apex, you can use the plus operator. See how to concatenate strings with Apex in the example:

String result = 'Sales' + 'force';
System.debug(result); // => Salesforce
System.assertEquals('Salesforce',result);'

This is how to append string in Apex.

String Escape Sequences

To escape a certain character you can use the backslash like shown in the following example:

Escape single quotes

Place a backslash in front of the single quote to escape it. See code example for escaping single quotes:

String result = 'Joe\'s diner';
System.debug(result);
// => Joe's diner

This is how to add single quotes in an Apex string.

Other common escape sequences

Take a look at the following list, to see how to escape special characters in Apex.

• \\ Backslash
• \’ Single quote
• \” Double quote
• \n New line
• \r Carriage return
• \t Tab

Remove special characters from string

Sometimes you need to get rid of all special characters. To remove special characters from a string, you can use the replaceAll method to replace all occurrences of special charters by nothing.

Take a look at the example:

String text = '({F]%*o:,r-#)ce!^H.}]o[@$w?';
text = text.replaceAll('[^a-zA-Z0-9\s+]', '');
System.assertEquals('ForceHow', text);

This is how to remove special characters from a string in Apex.

Remove whitespaces

To remove all spaces from a string, there is the deleteWhitespace method.

System.assertEquals('abc', '  a b  c  '.deleteWhitespace());

String join

To join a list to a string, you can use the static join method like that.

List<String> abc = new List<String> {'a','b','c'};
String result = String.join(abc,',' );
System.assertEquals('a,b,c', result);

Get first character of string

String result =  'abc'.substring(0,1);
System.assertEquals('a', result);

Note: An empty string would cause an StringException, because length zero minus one would not work.

String emtpyString = '';
try {
  emtpyString.substring(0,emtpyString.length()-1);
  System.Assert.fail();
} catch(Exception e){
  System.assertEquals('System.StringException',e.getTypeName());
}

In case you are not sure, that the string is not empty do isEmpty check upfront.

Remove last character from string

You can remove the last character of string by building a substring that ends before the last charater.

String fruits = 'apple,banana,orange,';
String result = fruits.substring(0,fruits.length()-1);
System.assertEquals('apple,banana,orange', result);

Be careful: You should check upfront, that the string is not empty. An empty string would cause a StringException.

Use removeEnd in case you know which charater should be removed.

String fruits = 'apple,banana,orange,';
String result = fruits.removeEnd(',');
System.assertEquals('apple,banana,orange', result);

Comparison

String null or empty

To assure that a given string is not null or empty use the isEmpty method.

System.assertEquals(true, String.isEmpty(null));
System.assertEquals(true, String.isEmpty(''));
// FALSE!
System.assertEquals(false, String.isEmpty('a'));
System.assertEquals(false, String.isEmpty(' '));

String isBlank vs isEmpty

Beside the isEmpty method there is also a isBlank method. But what is the difference?

There is only one difference: A string that only contains whitespaces is blank but not empty.

System.assertEquals(true, String.isBlank(''));
System.assertEquals(true, String.isBlank('  '));
System.assertEquals(true, String.isEmpty(''));
// FALSE!
System.assertEquals(false, String.isEmpty('  '));

Conversion

Learn how to convert a Salesforce Apex String to another type.

String to boolean

This is how you convert a Salesforce Apex String to a boolean.

String trueStr = 'true';
Boolean bool = Boolean.valueOf(trueStr);
System.assertEquals(true, bool);

String to number

This is how you convert a Salesforce Apex String to a number.

String numberStr = '123';
Integer result = Integer.valueOf(numberStr);
System.assertEquals(123, result);

This exampleshowed,how to convert string to decimal in Apex.

Number to string

This is how you convert a Salesforce Apex number to a string.

Example how to convert decimal to string:

Integer aNumber = 123;
String result = String.valueOf(aNumber);
System.assertEquals('123', result);

This is how to convert integer to string in Apex.

Date to string

To convert a date to a string use the static valueOf method of the String class.

Date myDate = Date.newinstance(2023, 12, 24);
String result = String.valueOf(myDate);
System.assertEquals('2023-12-24',result);

String to date

To convert a date to a string use the static valueOf method of the Date class.

String dateAsString = '2023-12-24';
Date result = Date.valueOf(dateAsString);
Date expected = Date.newinstance(2023, 12, 24);
System.assertEquals(expected,result);