Best way to clear a StringBuilder.

[stchman]

Hello all.

I have a Java program I have written. I chose to use StringBuilder as there is a LOT of concatenation going on. Also since I don't know how big the StringBuilder will need to be I don't initialize it.

My question is that at a certain point I need to clear the StringBuilder out. I have read the API and there are two ways I can do it:

Example:

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();


sb.setLength( 0 )

or

sb.delete( 0, sb.length() );

Both work, I would just like to know the most efficient way.

Thanks.

[eRaaaa]

Do you have performance issues? If not, why are you thinking about things like that now?

(btw: a third way is to create a new one and the gc will do the rest :D)

[sunde887]

"We should forget about small efficiencies, say about 97% of the time: premature optimization is the root of all evil"

-Knuth

That isn't to say you shouldn't think about which is more optimal, but if the API documentation doesn't specify which you should use, it's safe to use whichever you like.