String的subString()方法实现内部机制

在网上看到一篇关于java的String的subString()方法内部实现机制。现在将其记录下来。

JDK6:

public final class String {
/** The value is used for character storage. */
private final char value[];

/** The offset is the first index of the storage that is used. */
private final int offset;

/** The count is the number of characters in the String. */
private final int count;
public String(char value[], int offset, int count) {
        if (offset < 0) {
            throw new StringIndexOutOfBoundsException(offset);
        }
        if (count < 0) {
            throw new StringIndexOutOfBoundsException(count);
        }
        // Note: offset or count might be near -1>>>1.
        if (offset > value.length - count) {
            throw new StringIndexOutOfBoundsException(offset + count);
        }
        this.offset = 0;
        this.count = count;
        this.value = Arrays.copyOfRange(value, offset, offset+count);
    }
public String substring(int beginIndex, int endIndex) {
if (beginIndex < 0) {
throw new StringIndexOutOfBoundsException(beginIndex);
}
if (endIndex > count) {
throw new StringIndexOutOfBoundsException(endIndex);
}
if (beginIndex > endIndex) {
throw new StringIndexOutOfBoundsException(endIndex - beginIndex);
}
return ((beginIndex == 0) && (endIndex == count)) ? this :
new String(offset + beginIndex, endIndex - beginIndex, value);
}
}

调用substring()方法时创建的新的String与以前的string仍指向同一个char[]数组，只有offset（位置）以及count(计数)不同，由于char[]数组一直被引用，无法回收，所以可能导致内存泄漏。
JDK7:

public final class String {
/** The value is used for character storage. */
private final char value[];

/** The offset is the first index of the storage that is used. */
private final int offset;

/** The count is the number of characters in the String. */
private final int count;

public String(char value[], int offset, int count) {
if (offset < 0) {
throw new StringIndexOutOfBoundsException(offset);
}
if (count < 0) {
throw new StringIndexOutOfBoundsException(count);
}
// Note: offset or count might be near -1>>>1.
if (offset > value.length - count) {
throw new StringIndexOutOfBoundsException(offset + count);
}
this.value = Arrays.copyOfRange(value, offset, offset+count);
}
public String substring(int beginIndex, int endIndex) {
if (beginIndex < 0) {
throw new StringIndexOutOfBoundsException(beginIndex);
}
if (endIndex > value.length) {
throw new StringIndexOutOfBoundsException(endIndex);
}
int subLen = endIndex - beginIndex;
if (subLen < 0) {
throw new StringIndexOutOfBoundsException(subLen);
}
return ((beginIndex == 0) && (endIndex == value.length)) ? this
: new String(value, beginIndex, subLen);
}
}

JDK7在subString()时创建了一个新的数组，解决JDK6 subString()所带来的问题。