Java String toLowerCase()

The java string toLowerCase() method returns the string in lowercase letter. In other words, it converts all characters of the string into lower case letter.

The toLowerCase() method works same as toLowerCase(Locale.getDefault()) method. It internally uses the default locale.

Internal implementation

public String toLowerCase(Locale locale) {
        if (locale == null) {
            throw new NullPointerException();
        }

        int firstUpper;
        final int len = value.length;

        /* Now check if there are any characters that need to be changed. */
        scan: {
            for (firstUpper = 0 ; firstUpper < len; ) {
                char c = value[firstUpper];
                if ((c >= Character.MIN_HIGH_SURROGATE)
                        && (c <= Character.MAX_HIGH_SURROGATE)) {
                    int supplChar = codePointAt(firstUpper);
                    if (supplChar != Character.toLowerCase(supplChar)) {
                        break scan;
                    }
                    firstUpper += Character.charCount(supplChar);
                } else {
                    if (c != Character.toLowerCase(c)) {
                        break scan;
                    }
                    firstUpper++;
                }
            }
            return this;
        }

        char[] result = new char[len];
        int resultOffset = 0;  /* result may grow, so i+resultOffset
                                * is the write location in result */

        /* Just copy the first few lowerCase characters. */
        System.arraycopy(value, 0, result, 0, firstUpper);

        String lang = locale.getLanguage();
        boolean localeDependent =
                (lang == "tr" || lang == "az" || lang == "lt");
        char[] lowerCharArray;
        int lowerChar;
        int srcChar;
        int srcCount;
        for (int i = firstUpper; i < len; i += srcCount) {
            srcChar = (int)value[i];
            if ((char)srcChar >= Character.MIN_HIGH_SURROGATE
                    && (char)srcChar <= Character.MAX_HIGH_SURROGATE) {
                srcChar = codePointAt(i);
                srcCount = Character.charCount(srcChar);
            } else {
                srcCount = 1;
            }
            if (localeDependent || srcChar == '\u03A3') { // GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA
                lowerChar = ConditionalSpecialCasing.toLowerCaseEx(this, i, locale);
            } else if (srcChar == '\u0130') { // LATIN CAPITAL LETTER I DOT
                lowerChar = Character.ERROR;
            } else {
                lowerChar = Character.toLowerCase(srcChar);
            }
            if ((lowerChar == Character.ERROR)
                    || (lowerChar >= Character.MIN_SUPPLEMENTARY_CODE_POINT)) {
                if (lowerChar == Character.ERROR) {
                    if (!localeDependent && srcChar == '\u0130') {
                        lowerCharArray =
                                ConditionalSpecialCasing.toLowerCaseCharArray(this, i, Locale.ENGLISH);
                    } else {
                        lowerCharArray =
                                ConditionalSpecialCasing.toLowerCaseCharArray(this, i, locale);
                    }
                } else if (srcCount == 2) {
                    resultOffset += Character.toChars(lowerChar, result, i + resultOffset) - srcCount;
                    continue;
                } else {
                    lowerCharArray = Character.toChars(lowerChar);
                }

                /* Grow result if needed */
                int mapLen = lowerCharArray.length;
                if (mapLen > srcCount) {
                    char[] result2 = new char[result.length + mapLen - srcCount];
                    System.arraycopy(result, 0, result2, 0, i + resultOffset);
                    result = result2;
                }
                for (int x = 0; x < mapLen; ++x) {
                    result[i + resultOffset + x] = lowerCharArray[x];
                }
                resultOffset += (mapLen - srcCount);
            } else {
                result[i + resultOffset] = (char)lowerChar;
            }
        }
        return new String(result, 0, len + resultOffset);
    }

Signature

There are two variant of toLowerCase() method. The signature or syntax of string toLowerCase() method is given below:

public String toLowerCase()
public String toLowerCase(Locale locale)

The second method variant of toLowerCase(), converts all the characters into lowercase using the rules of given Locale.

Returns

string in lowercase letter.