Is CONSTANT.equals(VARIABLE) faster than VARIABLE.equals(CONSTANT)?

Question

I had an interesting conversation with one of my team mate.

Is CONSTANT.equals(VARIABLE) faster than VARIABLE.equals(CONSTANT)in Java?

Answer 1

For me its not a speed issue, its a relability issue.

e.g.

"Hello".equals(a); // will never throw a NPE
a.equals("Hello"); // can throw an NPE.

You may prefer it to blow up when a is null but usually I don't.