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How to convert a string to a list of characters in Kotlin

How to convert a string to a list of characters in Kotlin.

Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to convert a string to a list of characters in Kotlin:

Step 1: Declare a string variable​

First, you need to declare a string variable that you want to convert to a list of characters. For example, let's declare a string variable called str with the value "Hello, World!":

val str = "Hello, World!"

Step 2: Use the toList() function​

In Kotlin, strings are immutable, meaning you cannot directly modify individual characters. To convert a string to a list of characters, you can utilize the toList() function that is available for strings. This function converts the string into a list of characters.

val charList = str.toList()

The toList() function returns a List<Char>, where each character in the string is represented as a separate element in the list.

Step 3: Access and manipulate the character list​

Once you have converted the string to a list of characters, you can access and manipulate each character individually using standard list operations. Here are a few examples:

a) Accessing individual characters:

val firstChar = charList[0] // Access the first character
val lastChar = charList[charList.size - 1] // Access the last character

b) Iterating over the character list:

for (char in charList) {
    println(char)
}

c) Modifying characters: Since strings are immutable, you cannot modify the original string directly. However, you can convert the character list back to a string after making modifications.

val modifiedCharList = charList.toMutableList()
modifiedCharList[0] = 'h' // Change the first character to 'h'
val modifiedStr = modifiedCharList.joinToString("") // Convert the modified list back to string

In the above example, we convert the character list to a mutable list using the toMutableList() function, modify the first character, and then convert it back to a string using the joinToString() function.

That's it! You have successfully converted a string to a list of characters in Kotlin. You can now perform various operations on the character list as per your requirements.