What if Java prints the NUL character?

Question

public static void main(String[] args) {

    char[] array = new char[2];

    array[0] = 'a';

    String s = new String(array);

    assert s.length() == 2;

    System.out.print(">" + s + "<\n");

    System.out.print(">" + s.substring(1) + "<\n");

    System.out.print("end of test.\n");

}

The output is:

>a

>

end of test

Unlike C, the Java string is not null character terminated, hence the assertion is true. Why doesn't Java print the

<

delimiting symbol?

EDIT: Possibly relevant is that this is in Eclipse 4.5.1 on Ubuntu 14.04.

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Answer 1

I have tested your code in Eclipse and everything seems to works fine.

However, if I copy/paste the output from Eclipse console and paste it on a text editor it pastes only what you mentioned >a.

I am even pasting this >a copied/pasted from the Eclipse console (when I see >a <... look at my screenshot below).

So, I added this little code snippet to your code:

String f = " >" + s + "<\n";
for (int i=0; i < f.length(); i++) {
    System.out.println((int)f.charAt(i));
}

And this was the ascii codes:

I think your console has conflict printing the NUL (or 0) character. Additionally, I tested this on Windows so it wouldn't surprise me that Windows has problem copying/pasting strings with NUL in the middle.

This is a screenshot from my eclipse and output:

What if Java prints the NUL character?

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