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My question is related to Java but is quite general. When making such things as calculators I see people store the operator as a char as opposed to a string? Surely a string is easier to work with?

In said scenario are there any advantages of using char over string?

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  • String uses a char[] instead of String Commented Dec 29, 2013 at 14:18

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A char explicitly requires one character. It can't take two, nor zero, and not even a null. This increases type safety where this requirement is appropriate.

Also, using char is slightly faster than using String, in Java.

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+1, Requirement is appropriate. So the answer is it depends.
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Also, char class has special method to check if the char is a digit and so on. Char takes less memory than a string because char is a value type and not a reference type. The char value will seat on the stack instead of the heap. Meaning faster reading and writing - better performence.

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Good point about those methods. A single-character String can also emulate them with matches() and an appropriate [Unicode character class (or other regular expression).](www.regular-expressions.info/unicode.html)

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