Avoid duplicate Strings in Java

Question

I want to ask a question about avoiding String duplicates in Java.

The context is: an XML with tags and attributes like this one:

Answer 1

Yes, interning is the correct solution and you'd done your homework (that is checking with profiler that this is the problem).

Interning can cause problem if you store too much. The permgen memory needs to be increased. Despite what some people said, interned Strings are also garbage collected, so if some strings are not used anymore, it will be object to be garbage collected.

Some supporting articles:

1. My blog: http://blog.firdau.si/2009/01/06/java-tips-memory-optimization-for-string/
2. Does intern garbage collected?: http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/javaqa/2003-12/01-qa-1212-intern.html
3. Busting the 'Busting String.intern() Myths': http://kohlerm.blogspot.com/2009/01/is-javalangstringintern-really-evil.html