The StringBuilder Class

Introduction

The System.String namespace offers a plethora of methods for handling text. We could even create our own text editor. Remember, though, that a new string is created any time we make a change to a string object. That’s the nature of strings, they are immutable. This can be a problem if our program handles large texts and makes many changes. Memory allocation is a costly operation in terms of memory and processing power.

There must be something dynamic and mutable, something that can be modified in-place instead of created from scratch. Fortunately, .NET provides the StringBuilder class, which is like a mutable version of System.String.

Using StringBuilder

Note: The StringBuilder class is located in the System.Text namespace.

Mutability is achieved through the allocation more space than is required: