Why StringBuilder when there is String?

String does not allow appending. Each method you invoke on a String creates a new object and returns it. This is because String is immutable - it cannot change its internal state.

On the other hand StringBuilder is mutable. When you call append(..) it alters the internal char array, rather than creating a new string object.

Thus it is more efficient to have:

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < 500; i ++) {
    sb.append(i);
}

rather than str += i, which would create 500 new string objects.

Note that in the example I use a loop. As helios notes in the comments, the compiler automatically translates expressions like String d = a + b + c to something like

String d = new StringBuilder(a).append(b).append(c).toString();

Note also that there is StringBuffer in addition to StringBuilder. The difference is that the former has synchronized methods. If you use it as a local variable, use StringBuilder. If it happens that it's possible for it to be accessed by multiple threads, use StringBuffer (that's rarer)

Here is a concrete example on why -

int total = 50000;
String s = ""; 
for (int i = 0; i < total; i++) { s += String.valueOf(i); } 
// 4828ms

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); 
for (int i = 0; i < total; i++) { sb.append(String.valueOf(i)); } 
// 4ms

As you can see the difference in performance is significant.