看到所有的答案，我认为没有人提到比在java的新版本，你可以这样做:

String s = """
    This
    is 
    a
    multiline
    string
    """;
System.out.println(s);

这是它打印的内容:

This
is
a
multiline
string

String.join

Java 8为Java .lang. string添加了一个新的静态方法，它提供了一个更好的选择:

String.join ( CharSequence分隔符， CharSequence进行…元素 ）

使用它:

String s = String.join(
    System.getProperty("line.separator"),
    "First line.",
    "Second line.",
    "The rest.",
    "And the last!"
);

加号被转换为StringBuilder。除非两个字符串都是常量，以便编译器可以在编译时将它们组合在一起。至少，Sun的编译器是这样的，我怀疑大多数(如果不是所有)其他编译器也会这样做。

So:

String a="Hello";
String b="Goodbye";
String c=a+b;

通常生成完全相同的代码:

String a="Hello";
String b="Goodbye":
StringBuilder temp=new StringBuilder();
temp.append(a).append(b);
String c=temp.toString();

另一方面:

String c="Hello"+"Goodbye";

等于:

String c="HelloGoodbye";

也就是说，为了可读性，在多行中使用加号将字符串字面量分开并不会受到惩罚。

当使用一长串的+时，只会创建一个StringBuilder，除非在编译时确定String，在这种情况下不使用StringBuilder !

StringBuilder唯一更高效的情况是使用多个语句构造String。

String a = "a\n";
String b = "b\n";
String c = "c\n";
String d = "d\n";

String abcd = a + b + c + d;
System.out.println(abcd);

String abcd2 = "a\n" +
        "b\n" +
        "c\n" +
        "d\n";
System.out.println(abcd2);

注意:只创建了一个StringBuilder。

  Code:
   0:   ldc     #2; //String a\n
   2:   astore_1
   3:   ldc     #3; //String b\n
   5:   astore_2
   6:   ldc     #4; //String c\n
   8:   astore_3
   9:   ldc     #5; //String d\n
   11:  astore  4
   13:  new     #6; //class java/lang/StringBuilder
   16:  dup
   17:  invokespecial   #7; //Method java/lang/StringBuilder."<init>":()V
   20:  aload_1
   21:  invokevirtual   #8; //Method java/lang/StringBuilder.append:(Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lang/StringBuilder;
   24:  aload_2
   25:  invokevirtual   #8; //Method java/lang/StringBuilder.append:(Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lang/StringBuilder;
   28:  aload_3
   29:  invokevirtual   #8; //Method java/lang/StringBuilder.append:(Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lang/StringBuilder;
   32:  aload   4
   34:  invokevirtual   #8; //Method java/lang/StringBuilder.append:(Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lang/StringBuilder;
   37:  invokevirtual   #9; //Method java/lang/StringBuilder.toString:()Ljava/lang/String;
   40:  astore  5
   42:  getstatic       #10; //Field java/lang/System.out:Ljava/io/PrintStream;
   45:  aload   5
   47:  invokevirtual   #11; //Method java/io/PrintStream.println:(Ljava/lang/String;)V
   50:  ldc     #12; //String a\nb\nc\nd\n
   52:  astore  6
   54:  getstatic       #10; //Field java/lang/System.out:Ljava/io/PrintStream;
   57:  aload   6
   59:  invokevirtual   #11; //Method java/io/PrintStream.println:(Ljava/lang/String;)V
   62:  return

为了进一步澄清我的问题，我根本不关心性能。我关心的是可维护性和设计问题。

尽你所能让它清晰简单。

String newline = System.getProperty ("line.separator");
string1 + newline + string2 + newline + string3

但是，最好的替代方法是使用String.format

String multilineString = String.format("%s\n%s\n%s\n",line1,line2,line3);

当我读到多行语法确实是为jdk7计划的(在java存在了多少年之后?)时，我有点恼火。有趣的是，甚至还没有readAll()函数用于读取文件的完整内容(仅从jdk7读取，啊啊)，因此下面的代码读取单行。

/*
  MakeMultiline v1.0 (2010) - Free to use and copy.

  Small gadget to turn text blobs into one java string literal
  (doing the split in lines, adding \n at each end and enclosing
  in double quotes). Does escape quotes encountered in the text blob.

  Useful for working around missing multiline string syntax in java
  prior jdk7. Use with:

     java MakeMultiline "    "
  or
     java MakeMultiline "    " mytextfile.txt
*/

import java.io.*;

class MakeMultiline {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
      // args[0]: indent
      // args[1]: filename to read (optional; stdin if not given)
      // Beware the nmb of newlines at the end when using stdin!

      String indent = (args.length > 0 ? args[0] : "");
      FileReader fr = null; BufferedReader br;
      if (args.length > 1)
        { fr =  new FileReader(args[1]); br = new BufferedReader(fr); }
      else
        { br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in)); }
      String s; String res = "";
      while((s = br.readLine()) != null) {
        if (res.length() > 0) res += " +\n";
        res += indent + "\"" + s.replace("\"", "\\\"") + "\\n\"";
      }
      br.close(); if (fr != null) fr.close();
      System.out.println(res + ";");
    }
    catch(Exception e) {
      System.out.println("Exception: " + e);
    }
  }
}

这对我来说是最快的解决办法。(2010-01-27)