Why is char[] preferred over String for passwords?

Question

In Swing, the password field has a getPassword() (returns char[]) method instead of the usual getText() (returns String)

Answer 1

String in java is immutable. So whenever a string is created, it will remain in the memory until it is garbage collected. So anyone who has access to the memory can read the value of the string.
If the value of the string is modified then it will end up creating a new string. So both the original value and the modified value stay in the memory until it is garbage collected.

With the character array, the contents of the array can be modified or erased once the purpose of the password is served. The original contents of the array will not be found in memory after it is modified and even before the garbage collection kicks in.

Because of the security concern it is better to store password as a character array.