Java - insert unicode character to string

In this article, we would like to show you how to insert unicode character to string in Java.

There are three different ways how to do it:

• with escape character e.g. \u03c0 that is equal to π,
• by pasting character directly to string,
• by converting codes to a string.

Quick solution:

String text = "π or \u03c0"; // U+03C0

System.out.println(text);    // π or π

Output:

π or π

More complicated example

Space is represented by 0x20 (in hex) or 32 (in dec). It is necessary to add 2 additional zeros before code (e.g. \u0020).

public class Example {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

        String text = "π and \u03c0 are\u0020equal"; // U+03C0 U+0020

        System.out.println(text);  // π and π are equal
    }
}

Output:

π and π are equal

Directly pasted emojis

In this section you can find some emojis that we pasted directly to the string and received e.g \uD83C\uDF4F for the 🍏 (green apple emoji).

public class Example {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {

        String apple = "\uD83C\uDF4F";
        String banana = "\uD83C\uDF4C";
        String cherry = "\uD83C\uDF52";
        
        System.out.println(apple);
        System.out.println(banana);
        System.out.println(cherry);
    }
}

Output:

🍏
🍌
🍒