How can I clear or empty a StringBuilder?

I'm using a StringBuilder in a loop and every x iterations I want to empty it and start with an empty StringBuilder, but I can't see any method similar to the .NET StringBuilder.Clear in the documentation, just the delete method which seems overly complicated.

So what is the best way to clean out a StringBuilder in Java?

Two ways that work:

• Use stringBuilderObj.setLength(0).

• Allocate a new one with new StringBuilder() instead of clearing the buffer. Note that for performance-critical code paths, this approach can be significantly slower than the setLength-based approach (since a new object with a new buffer needs to be allocated, the old object becomes eligible for GC etc).

Stack Overflow Q#5192512, score: 994