我认为这张图对于比较所有使用string的类非常有用:

这取决于字符串的大小。

请看下面的例子:

static final int MAX_ITERATIONS = 50000;
static final int CALC_AVG_EVERY = 10000;

public static void main(String[] args) {
    printBytecodeVersion();
    printJavaVersion();
    case1();//str.concat
    case2();//+=
    case3();//StringBuilder
}

static void case1() {
    System.out.println("[str1.concat(str2)]");
    List<Long> savedTimes = new ArrayList();
    long startTimeAll = System.currentTimeMillis();
    String str = "";
    for (int i = 0; i < MAX_ITERATIONS; i++) {
        long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
        str = str.concat(UUID.randomUUID() + "---");
        saveTime(savedTimes, startTime);
    }
    System.out.println("Created string of length:" + str.length() + " in " + (System.currentTimeMillis() - startTimeAll) + " ms");
}

static void case2() {
    System.out.println("[str1+=str2]");
    List<Long> savedTimes = new ArrayList();
    long startTimeAll = System.currentTimeMillis();
    String str = "";
    for (int i = 0; i < MAX_ITERATIONS; i++) {
        long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
        str += UUID.randomUUID() + "---";
        saveTime(savedTimes, startTime);
    }
    System.out.println("Created string of length:" + str.length() + " in " + (System.currentTimeMillis() - startTimeAll) + " ms");
}

static void case3() {
    System.out.println("[str1.append(str2)]");
    List<Long> savedTimes = new ArrayList();
    long startTimeAll = System.currentTimeMillis();
    StringBuilder str = new StringBuilder("");
    for (int i = 0; i < MAX_ITERATIONS; i++) {
        long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
        str.append(UUID.randomUUID() + "---");
        saveTime(savedTimes, startTime);
    }
    System.out.println("Created string of length:" + str.length() + " in " + (System.currentTimeMillis() - startTimeAll) + " ms");

}

static void saveTime(List<Long> executionTimes, long startTime) {
    executionTimes.add(System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime);
    if (executionTimes.size() % CALC_AVG_EVERY == 0) {
        out.println("average time for " + executionTimes.size() + " concatenations: "
                + NumberFormat.getInstance().format(executionTimes.stream().mapToLong(Long::longValue).average().orElseGet(() -> 0))
                + " ms avg");
        executionTimes.clear();
    }
}

输出:

java bytecode version:8 java.version: 1.8.0_144 [str1.concat(str2)] average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.096 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.185 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.327 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.501 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.656 ms avg Created string of length:1950000 in 17745 ms [str1+=str2] average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.21 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.652 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 1.129 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 1.727 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 2.302 ms avg Created string of length:1950000 in 60279 ms [str1.append(str2)] average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.002 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.002 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.002 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.002 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.002 ms avg Created string of length:1950000 in 100 ms

随着字符串长度的增加，+=和.concat的连接时间也会增加，后者效率更高，但仍然是非常量 这就是绝对需要StringBuilder的地方。

附注:我不认为什么时候在Java中使用StringBuilder是一个真正的复制。 这个问题讨论的是toString()，它在大多数情况下不会执行大字符串的连接。

2019年更新

自java8时代以来，情况发生了一些变化。现在看来(java13)， +=的连接时间实际上与str.concat()相同。但是StringBuilder的连接时间仍然是固定的。(上面的原始帖子略有编辑，添加了更多详细的输出)

java bytecode version:13 java.version: 13.0.1 [str1.concat(str2)] average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.047 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.1 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.17 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.255 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.336 ms avg Created string of length:1950000 in 9147 ms [str1+=str2] average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.037 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.097 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.249 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.298 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.326 ms avg Created string of length:1950000 in 10191 ms [str1.append(str2)] average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.001 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.001 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.001 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.001 ms avg average time for 10000 concatenations: 0.001 ms avg Created string of length:1950000 in 43 ms

值得注意的还有bytecode:8/java。与bytecode:8/java.version:8相比，Version:13组合具有良好的性能优势

在Java 9中，版本1应该更快，因为它被转换为invokedynamic调用。更多细节可以在JEP-280中找到:

其思想是用对java.lang.invoke的简单invokedynamic调用替换整个StringBuilder追加舞蹈。StringConcatFactory，它将接受需要连接的值。

对于当前的编译器是否仍然需要使用StringBuilder，似乎存在一些争论。所以我想谈谈我的经验。

我有一个包含10k条记录的JDBC结果集(是的，我需要将它们全部放在一个批处理中)。在我的Java 1.8机器上使用+运算符大约需要5分钟。对于相同的查询，使用stringBuilder.append("")只需不到一秒。

所以差异是巨大的。在循环中，StringBuilder要快得多。

Apache Commons-Lang有一个超级容易使用的ToStringBuilder类。它在处理附加逻辑以及格式化你想要的toString外观方面做得很好。

public void toString() {
     ToStringBuilder tsb =  new ToStringBuilder(this);
     tsb.append("a", a);
     tsb.append("b", b)
     return tsb.toString();
}

将返回类似com.blah的输出。YourClass@abc1321f (a =, = foo)。

或者使用链接的更浓缩的形式:

public void toString() {
     return new ToStringBuilder(this).append("a", a).append("b", b").toString();
}

或者如果你想使用反射来包含类的每个字段:

public String toString() {
    return ToStringBuilder.reflectionToString(this);
}

如果需要，还可以自定义ToString的样式。

这是我在Java8中检查的

Using String concatenation Using StringBuilder long time1 = System.currentTimeMillis(); usingStringConcatenation(100000); System.out.println("usingStringConcatenation " + (System.currentTimeMillis() - time1) + " ms"); time1 = System.currentTimeMillis(); usingStringBuilder(100000); System.out.println("usingStringBuilder " + (System.currentTimeMillis() - time1) + " ms"); private static void usingStringBuilder(int n) { StringBuilder str = new StringBuilder(); for(int i=0;i<n;i++) str.append("myBigString"); } private static void usingStringConcatenation(int n) { String str = ""; for(int i=0;i<n;i++) str+="myBigString"; }

如果对大量的字符串使用字符串连接，这真的是一场噩梦。

usingStringConcatenation 29321 ms
usingStringBuilder 2 ms