Difference between == and .equals in Java.

Question

I know this has been covered but I\'ve seen inconsistent arguments here on SO.

So if I have:

String a = \"apple2e\";
String b = \"apple2e\";

System.         


        

Answer 1

Your first example is actually true. The expression in the println just isn't doing what you meant.

String a = "apple2e";
String b = "apple2e";

System.out.println("a==b? " + (a == b));

Will print a==b? true note the all important grouping!

You are correct that a and b are two different references to the same object. This is exactly why == returns true when you test it! == tests if two different pointers point to the same location in memory. Both a and b are references to the same place in memory that holds the interned compile time "apple2e" string.

Now if you did this

String a = new String("apple2e");
String b = new String("apple2e");

System.out.println("a==b? " + (a == b));

It actually will print a==b? false. Because you made two different objects in memory, a and b point to different places.