What is the purpose of the expression “new String(…)” in Java?

Question

While looking at online code samples, I have sometimes come across an assignment of a String constant to a String object via the use of the new operator.

For example

Answer 1

The only time I have found this useful is in declaring lock variables:

private final String lock = new String("Database lock");

....

synchronized(lock)
{
    // do something
}

In this case, debugging tools like Eclipse will show the string when listing what locks a thread currently holds or is waiting for. You have to use "new String", i.e. allocate a new String object, because otherwise a shared string literal could possibly be locked in some other unrelated code.