Object comparison: Address vs Content - java

Hey guys im just messing around and I cant get this to work:
public static void main(String[] args){
Scanner input = new Scanner (System.in);
String x = "hey";
System.out.println("What is x?: ");
x = input.nextLine();
System.out.println(x);
if (x == "hello")
System.out.println("hello");
else
System.out.println("goodbye");
}
it is of course supposed to print hello hello if you enter hello but it will not. I am using Eclipse just to mess around. A little quick help please

Should be if (x.equals("hello")).
With java objects, == is used for reference comparison. .equals() for value comparison.

Don't use == when testing for equality of non basic types, it will test for reference equality. Use .equals(..) instead.
Look at the following diagram:
When using == you're comparing the addresses of the boxes, when using equals you're comparing their content.

You can't compare a string like that.Because String is a class.So if you want to compare its content use equals
if (x.equals("hello"))
System.out.println("hello");
else
System.out.println("goodbye");

x=="hello" compares the references not values , you will have to do x.equals("hello").

String s = "something", t = "maybe something else";
if (s == t) // Legal, but usually WRONG.
if (s.equals(t)) // RIGHT
if (s > t) // ILLEGAL
if (s.compareTo(t) > 0) // CORRECT>

Use "hello".equals(x) and never reverse since it does not handle null.

== operator checks equality of references (not values). In your case you have 2 String type object which have different reference but same value "hello". String class has "equals" method for checking values equality. The syntax is if(str1.equals(str2)).

Try this as the comparison:
if (x.equals("hello"))

Use x.equals("hello");
http://leepoint.net/notes-java/data/expressions/22compareobjects.html

Take this sample program:
public class StringComparison {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String hello = "hello";
System.out.println(hello == "hello");
String hello2 = "hel" + "lo";
System.out.println(hello == hello2);
String hello3 = new String(hello);
System.out.println(hello == hello3);
System.out.println(hello3.equals(hello));
}
}
Its output would be:
true
true
false
true
Objects hello and hello3 have different references that's why hello == hello3 is false, but they contain the same string, therefore equals returns true.
The expression hello == hello2 is true because Java compiler is smart enough to perform concatenation of two string constants.
So to compare String objects, you have to use equals method.

Related

Substring in if statement [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
How do I compare strings in Java?
(23 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
This code separates a string into tokens and stores them in an array of strings, and then compares a variable with the first home ... why isn't it working?
public static void main(String...aArguments) throws IOException {
String usuario = "Jorman";
String password = "14988611";
String strDatos = "Jorman 14988611";
StringTokenizer tokens = new StringTokenizer(strDatos, " ");
int nDatos = tokens.countTokens();
String[] datos = new String[nDatos];
int i = 0;
while (tokens.hasMoreTokens()) {
String str = tokens.nextToken();
datos[i] = str;
i++;
}
//System.out.println (usuario);
if ((datos[0] == usuario)) {
System.out.println("WORKING");
}
}
Use the string.equals(Object other) function to compare strings, not the == operator.
The function checks the actual contents of the string, the == operator checks whether the references to the objects are equal. Note that string constants are usually "interned" such that two constants with the same value can actually be compared with ==, but it's better not to rely on that.
if (usuario.equals(datos[0])) {
...
}
NB: the compare is done on 'usuario' because that's guaranteed non-null in your code, although you should still check that you've actually got some tokens in the datos array otherwise you'll get an array-out-of-bounds exception.
Meet Jorman
Jorman is a successful businessman and has 2 houses.
But others don't know that.
Is it the same Jorman?
When you ask neighbours from either Madison or Burke streets, this is the only thing they can say:
Using the residence alone, it's tough to confirm that it's the same Jorman. Since they're 2 different addresses, it's just natural to assume that those are 2 different persons.
That's how the operator == behaves. So it will say that datos[0]==usuario is false, because it only compares the addresses.
An Investigator to the Rescue
What if we sent an investigator? We know that it's the same Jorman, but we need to prove it. Our detective will look closely at all physical aspects. With thorough inquiry, the agent will be able to conclude whether it's the same person or not. Let's see it happen in Java terms.
Here's the source code of String's equals() method:
It compares the Strings character by character, in order to come to a conclusion that they are indeed equal.
That's how the String equals method behaves. So datos[0].equals(usuario) will return true, because it performs a logical comparison.
It's good to notice that in some cases use of "==" operator can lead to the expected result, because the way how java handles strings - string literals are interned (see String.intern()) during compilation - so when you write for example "hello world" in two classes and compare those strings with "==" you could get result: true, which is expected according to specification; when you compare same strings (if they have same value) when the first one is string literal (ie. defined through "i am string literal") and second is constructed during runtime ie. with "new" keyword like new String("i am string literal"), the == (equality) operator returns false, because both of them are different instances of the String class.
Only right way is using .equals() -> datos[0].equals(usuario). == says only if two objects are the same instance of object (ie. have same memory address)
Update: 01.04.2013 I updated this post due comments below which are somehow right. Originally I declared that interning (String.intern) is side effect of JVM optimization. Although it certainly save memory resources (which was what i meant by "optimization") it is mainly feature of language
The == operator checks if the two references point to the same object or not.
.equals() checks for the actual string content (value).
Note that the .equals() method belongs to class Object (super class of all classes). You need to override it as per you class requirement, but for String it is already implemented and it checks whether two strings have the same value or not.
Case1)
String s1 = "Stack Overflow";
String s2 = "Stack Overflow";
s1 == s1; // true
s1.equals(s2); // true
Reason: String literals created without null are stored in the string pool in the permgen area of the heap. So both s1 and s2 point to the same object in the pool.
Case2)
String s1 = new String("Stack Overflow");
String s2 = new String("Stack Overflow");
s1 == s2; // false
s1.equals(s2); // true
Reason: If you create a String object using the `new` keyword a separate space is allocated to it on the heap.
equals() function is a method of Object class which should be overridden by programmer. String class overrides it to check if two strings are equal i.e. in content and not reference.
== operator checks if the references of both the objects are the same.
Consider the programs
String abc = "Awesome" ;
String xyz = abc;
if(abc == xyz)
System.out.println("Refers to same string");
Here the abc and xyz, both refer to same String "Awesome". Hence the expression (abc == xyz) is true.
String abc = "Hello World";
String xyz = "Hello World";
if(abc == xyz)
System.out.println("Refers to same string");
else
System.out.println("Refers to different strings");
if(abc.equals(xyz))
System.out.prinln("Contents of both strings are same");
else
System.out.prinln("Contents of strings are different");
Here abc and xyz are two different strings with the same content "Hello World". Hence here the expression (abc == xyz) is false where as (abc.equals(xyz)) is true.
Hope you understood the difference between == and <Object>.equals()
Thanks.
== tests for reference equality.
.equals() tests for value equality.
Consequently, if you actually want to test whether two strings have the same value you should use .equals() (except in a few situations where you can guarantee that two strings with the same value will be represented by the same object eg: String interning).
== is for testing whether two strings are the same Object.
// These two have the same value
new String("test").equals("test") ==> true
// ... but they are not the same object
new String("test") == "test" ==> false
// ... neither are these
new String("test") == new String("test") ==> false
// ... but these are because literals are interned by
// the compiler and thus refer to the same object
"test" == "test" ==> true
// concatenation of string literals happens at compile time resulting in same objects
"test" == "te" + "st" ==> true
// but .substring() is invoked at runtime, generating distinct objects
"test" == "!test".substring(1) ==> false
It is important to note that == is much cheaper than equals() (a single pointer comparision instead of a loop), thus, in situations where it is applicable (i.e. you can guarantee that you are only dealing with interned strings) it can present an important performance improvement. However, these situations are rare.
Instead of
datos[0] == usuario
use
datos[0].equals(usuario)
== compares the reference of the variable where .equals() compares the values which is what you want.
Let's analyze the following Java, to understand the identity and equality of Strings:
public static void testEquality(){
String str1 = "Hello world.";
String str2 = "Hello world.";
if (str1 == str2)
System.out.print("str1 == str2\n");
else
System.out.print("str1 != str2\n");
if(str1.equals(str2))
System.out.print("str1 equals to str2\n");
else
System.out.print("str1 doesn't equal to str2\n");
String str3 = new String("Hello world.");
String str4 = new String("Hello world.");
if (str3 == str4)
System.out.print("str3 == str4\n");
else
System.out.print("str3 != str4\n");
if(str3.equals(str4))
System.out.print("str3 equals to str4\n");
else
System.out.print("str3 doesn't equal to str4\n");
}
When the first line of code String str1 = "Hello world." executes, a string \Hello world."
is created, and the variable str1 refers to it. Another string "Hello world." will not be created again when the next line of code executes because of optimization. The variable str2 also refers to the existing ""Hello world.".
The operator == checks identity of two objects (whether two variables refer to same object). Since str1 and str2 refer to same string in memory, they are identical to each other. The method equals checks equality of two objects (whether two objects have same content). Of course, the content of str1 and str2 are same.
When code String str3 = new String("Hello world.") executes, a new instance of string with content "Hello world." is created, and it is referred to by the variable str3. And then another instance of string with content "Hello world." is created again, and referred to by
str4. Since str3 and str4 refer to two different instances, they are not identical, but their
content are same.
Therefore, the output contains four lines:
Str1 == str2
Str1 equals str2
Str3! = str4
Str3 equals str4
You should use string equals to compare two strings for equality, not operator == which just compares the references.
It will also work if you call intern() on the string before inserting it into the array.
Interned strings are reference-equal (==) if and only if they are value-equal (equals().)
public static void main (String... aArguments) throws IOException {
String usuario = "Jorman";
String password = "14988611";
String strDatos="Jorman 14988611";
StringTokenizer tokens=new StringTokenizer(strDatos, " ");
int nDatos=tokens.countTokens();
String[] datos=new String[nDatos];
int i=0;
while(tokens.hasMoreTokens()) {
String str=tokens.nextToken();
datos[i]= str.intern();
i++;
}
//System.out.println (usuario);
if(datos[0]==usuario) {
System.out.println ("WORKING");
}
Generally .equals is used for Object comparison, where you want to verify if two Objects have an identical value.
== for reference comparison (are the two Objects the same Object on the heap) & to check if the Object is null. It is also used to compare the values of primitive types.
== operator compares the reference of an object in Java. You can use string's equals method .
String s = "Test";
if(s.equals("Test"))
{
System.out.println("Equal");
}
If you are going to compare any assigned value of the string i.e. primitive string, both "==" and .equals will work, but for the new string object you should use only .equals, and here "==" will not work.
Example:
String a = "name";
String b = "name";
if(a == b) and (a.equals(b)) will return true.
But
String a = new String("a");
In this case if(a == b) will return false
So it's better to use the .equals operator...
The == operator is a simple comparison of values.
For object references the (values) are the (references). So x == y returns true if x and y reference the same object.
I know this is an old question but here's how I look at it (I find very useful):
Technical explanations
In Java, all variables are either primitive types or references.
(If you need to know what a reference is: "Object variables" are just pointers to objects. So with Object something = ..., something is really an address in memory (a number).)
== compares the exact values. So it compares if the primitive values are the same, or if the references (addresses) are the same. That's why == often doesn't work on Strings; Strings are objects, and doing == on two string variables just compares if the address is same in memory, as others have pointed out. .equals() calls the comparison method of objects, which will compare the actual objects pointed by the references. In the case of Strings, it compares each character to see if they're equal.
The interesting part:
So why does == sometimes return true for Strings? Note that Strings are immutable. In your code, if you do
String foo = "hi";
String bar = "hi";
Since strings are immutable (when you call .trim() or something, it produces a new string, not modifying the original object pointed to in memory), you don't really need two different String("hi") objects. If the compiler is smart, the bytecode will read to only generate one String("hi") object. So if you do
if (foo == bar) ...
right after, they're pointing to the same object, and will return true. But you rarely intend this. Instead, you're asking for user input, which is creating new strings at different parts of memory, etc. etc.
Note: If you do something like baz = new String(bar) the compiler may still figure out they're the same thing. But the main point is when the compiler sees literal strings, it can easily optimize same strings.
I don't know how it works in runtime, but I assume the JVM doesn't keep a list of "live strings" and check if a same string exists. (eg if you read a line of input twice, and the user enters the same input twice, it won't check if the second input string is the same as the first, and point them to the same memory). It'd save a bit of heap memory, but it's so negligible the overhead isn't worth it. Again, the point is it's easy for the compiler to optimize literal strings.
There you have it... a gritty explanation for == vs. .equals() and why it seems random.
#Melkhiah66 You can use equals method instead of '==' method to check the equality.
If you use intern() then it checks whether the object is in pool if present then returns
equal else unequal. equals method internally uses hashcode and gets you the required result.
public class Demo
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
String str1 = "Jorman 14988611";
String str2 = new StringBuffer("Jorman").append(" 14988611").toString();
String str3 = str2.intern();
System.out.println("str1 == str2 " + (str1 == str2)); //gives false
System.out.println("str1 == str3 " + (str1 == str3)); //gives true
System.out.println("str1 equals str2 " + (str1.equals(str2))); //gives true
System.out.println("str1 equals str3 " + (str1.equals(str3))); //gives true
}
}
The .equals() will check if the two strings have the same value and return the boolean value where as the == operator checks to see if the two strings are the same object.
Someone said on a post higher up that == is used for int and for checking nulls.
It may also be used to check for Boolean operations and char types.
Be very careful though and double check that you are using a char and not a String.
for example
String strType = "a";
char charType = 'a';
for strings you would then check
This would be correct
if(strType.equals("a")
do something
but
if(charType.equals('a')
do something else
would be incorrect, you would need to do the following
if(charType == 'a')
do something else
a==b
Compares references, not values. The use of == with object references is generally limited to the following:
Comparing to see if a reference is null.
Comparing two enum values. This works because there is only one object for each enum constant.
You want to know if two references are to the same object
"a".equals("b")
Compares values for equality. Because this method is defined in the Object class, from which all other classes are derived, it's automatically defined for every class. However, it doesn't perform an intelligent comparison for most classes unless the class overrides it. It has been defined in a meaningful way for most Java core classes. If it's not defined for a (user) class, it behaves the same as ==.
Use Split rather than tokenizer,it will surely provide u exact output
for E.g:
string name="Harry";
string salary="25000";
string namsal="Harry 25000";
string[] s=namsal.split(" ");
for(int i=0;i<s.length;i++)
{
System.out.println(s[i]);
}
if(s[0].equals("Harry"))
{
System.out.println("Task Complete");
}
After this I am sure you will get better results.....

What is the differance between those two Strings in Java [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Closed 10 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
Java String.equals versus ==
Why when we declare string in Java we can't use == to compare this string and it will always turn to false, but if we initialize the string from the beginning it will be true?
For example :
import java.util.Scanner;
public class MyString {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
String s = input.nextLine();
if(s=="Hello")
System.out.println("Hello");
String d = "Hello";
if(d=="Hello")
System.out.println("Hello");
}
}
What is the explanation for this behavior?
This is an example of String.intern() happening automatically for string literals but not in general.
If you change your code to
public static void main(String[] args) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
String s = input.nextLine();
s = s.intern();
if(s=="Hello")
System.out.println("Hello");
String d = "Hello";
if(d=="Hello")
System.out.println("Hello");
}
you will see "Hello" printed twice upon entering "Hello" at the console, because then all the copies of the "Hello" will have been interned to the same copy.
You should of course not normally use == to compare Strings, but use
if (s.equals("Hello")
This "intern" process is a way of reducing memory usage supported by many languages including Java. When you call s.intern() the run-times looks for a copy of the string in a pool of interned strings, uses one if it's found, and makes one otherwise, so that there's only one copy of that string. For more on the general idea, see this Wikipedia article.
Use str.equals(str2). Otherwise you are comparing whether the objects have the same address.
The reason is that the string object returned by input.nextLine() is not interned. So, it's not the same string object as the one represented by the string literal "Hello".
With the following, if you enter "Hello", you should see the difference:
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
String s = input.nextLine();
s = s.intern();
if (s == "Hello") {
System.out.println("Hello 1");
}
String d = "Hello";
if (d == "Hello") {
System.out.println("Hello 2");
}
use .equals() method to check string equality. == checks if two reference variables point to the same string object.
nextLine() adds a "\n" to the end of the entered string, rendering it unequal to "Hello".

Java Input Problems - how to compare strings [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
How do I compare strings in Java?
(23 answers)
Closed 7 years ago.
This seems to be pretty simple, but I have been stucked here for a couple of hours.
I have a doubt when you have to compare two Strings in Java.
if I just do something like this:
String var1 = "hello";
String var2 = "hello";
and then compare these two words in another function, the result will clearly be true.
But the problem is when I have to compare two words that come from an input. Here is my code:
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Compare{
public static void main(String[] args){
Scanner Scanner = new Scanner (System.in);
System.out.println("Enter first word: ");
String var1 = Scanner.nextLine();
System.out.println("Enter second word: ");
String var2 = Scanner.nextLine();
if (same (var1, var2))
System.out.println("Yes");
else
System.out.println("No");
}
public static boolean same (String var1, String var2){
if (var1 == var2)
return true;
else
return false;
}
}
I have tried several times (clearly entering the same word) and the result is always False.
I don't know why this happens. What am I missing?
This is my first time in Java. I will appreciate any kind of help. Thanks
You should change
if (var1 == var2)
{
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
}
to
if (var1.equals(var2))
{
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
}
See this answer for the difference between the two
To be more accurate, with Strings in Java sometimes you can use == instead of .equals, if your string has been interned. Remember that == always compares the object references, not the contents of the object. Interning a String means that you will get the same object reference back and this is why == works with interned Strings.
Please read the Javadoc here to understand this more clearly:
String.intern()
In Java the == is a reference equality operator.
It works with the following.
String var1 = "hello";
String var2 = "hello";
boolean cmp = var1 == var2;
just because they are string literals and they are allocated in the same place inside the string table, so both variables point to the same string.
If you are fetching data from another source the strings are dynamically allocated, hence you should use the var1.equals(var2) (and you should ALWAYS use that one when comparing two objects).
Instead of if (same (var1, var2)) use if (v1.equals(v2)). No need to create a new method to compare two Strings. That's what equals() does.
== is used to compares references, not the contents of each String object.
The equality operator(==) checks the refernce of string first then checks value of string.
While equals method checks the value first.
So,in this case equals method should be used instead of equality operator.
String s="hello";
String s1="hello";
String s3=new String("hello")
In the above code snippet if you use If(s==s1){System.out.print("Equal");}it would print equal.But if you check If(s==s3){System.out.print("unqual");}it wouldn't print unequal.
so,you can see that even strings s and s3 are equal,output is wrong.Therefore,in this scenario like program in question
Equals method must be used.
var1 == var2
sometimes works because VM allocates the same memory both the variables for memory optimization and thus having same reference. That cannot be always the case so it's better to use
var1.equals(var2)
If you want to compare their values and doesnt care about reference.

Reading and checking strings from user input

I have this code:
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Example {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
String answer = input.nextLine();
if(answer == "yes"){
System.out.println("Yea I programmed this right!");
}else{
System.out.println("Awww :(");
}
}
}
But when I run it and type yes, it should be saying
"Yea I programmed this right!"
but it says
"Awww :("
You're comparing strings incorrectly. You must use the equals() method, like this:
if (answer.equals("yes"))
When you're programming in Java, the operator == is generally used for comparing primitive data types (int, double, etc.). If you use == for comparing two object types (like strings), you're comparing them for identity, that is, checking if they reference the same object in memory. In your case, what you need is to compare if they're equal: if they have the exact same value (a string of characters in this case) even if they're two different objects - and for that you must use the equals() method.
EDIT :
Even better, for preventing a NullPointerException, it's considered a good practice flipping the order of the comparison and writing first the string you're comparing with, like this:
if ("yes".equals(answer))
The explanation is simple: if for some reason answer is null, the above comparison will evaluate to false (meaning: answer is not "yes"), whereas the first version of the code would cause a NullPointerException when trying to call the equals() method on a null value.
if(answer == "yes"){
should be
if("yes".equals(answer)){
(== is not correct for String equality, and we handle the case where answer is null)
Use String.equals() instead of ==.
In Java, == is testing that the 2 Strings are the exact same instance, where "a" != "a". Instead, you need to test for "a".equals("a").
So replace
if(answer == "yes"){
with:
if("yes".equals(answer)){
Note that flipping the order here is intentional, as this can prevent a NullPointerException if answer was null - as "yes".equals(null) will simply return false, instead of throwing an exception. (Calling an operation on null would throw a NullPointerException, I.E. null.equals("yes").)
Change this
if(answer.equals("yes")){
System.out.println("Yea I programmed this right!");
}else{
System.out.println("Awww :(");
}
The equals() method compares this string (answer in your example) to the specified object. The result is true if and only if the argument is not null and is a String object that represents the same sequence of characters as this object.
It is important to understand that the equals() method and the == operator perform two different operations. As just mentioned, the equals() method compares the characters inside a String object. The == operator compares two object references to see whether they refer to the same instance.
import java.util.Scanner;
public class Example {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);
String answer = input.nextLine();
/*Edit your next line as mine,u'll get the correct ans...*/
if("yes".equals(answer)){
System.out.println("Yea I programmed this right!");
}else{
System.out.println("Awww :(");
}
}
}
or you can try to use "compareTo()" function
private static Scanner input;
private static String choice;
public static void main(String[] args) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
input = new Scanner(System.in);
choice = input.nextLine();
if (choice.compareTo("yes") == 0) {
System.out.println("Yea I programmed this right!");
} else {
System.out.println("Awww :(");
}
}

What's the difference between ".equals" and "=="? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
What is the difference between == and equals() in Java?
(26 answers)
Closed 6 years ago.
I switched lecturers today and he stated using a weird code to me. (He said it's better to use .equals and when I asked why, he answered "because it is!")
So here's an example:
if (o1.equals(o2))
{
System.out.println("Both integer objects are the same");
}
Instead of what I'm used to:
if (o1 == o2)
{
System.out.println("Both integer objects are the same");
}
What's the difference between the two. And why is his way (using .equals) better?
Found this on a quick search but I can't really make sense of that answer:
In Java, == always just compares two references (for non-primitives, that is) - i.e. it tests whether the two operands refer to the same object.
However, the equals method can be overridden - so two distinct objects can still be equal.
For example:
String x = "hello";
String y = new String(new char[] { 'h', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o' });
System.out.println(x == y); // false
System.out.println(x.equals(y)); // true
Additionally, it's worth being aware that any two equal string constants (primarily string literals, but also combinations of string constants via concatenation) will end up referring to the same string. For example:
String x = "hello";
String y = "he" + "llo";
System.out.println(x == y); // true!
Here x and y are references to the same string, because y is a compile-time constant equal to "hello".
The == operator compares if the objects are the same instance. The equals() oerator compares the state of the objects (e.g. if all attributes are equal). You can even override the equals() method to define yourself when an object is equal to another.
If you and I each walk into the bank, each open a brand new account, and each deposit $100, then...
myAccount.equals(yourAccount) is true because they have the same value, but
myAccount == yourAccount is false because they are not the same account.
(Assuming appropriate definitions of the Account class, of course. ;-)
== is an operator. equals is a method defined in the Object class
== checks if two objects have the same address in the memory and for primitive it checks if they have the same value.equals method on the other hand checks if the two objects which are being compared have an equal value(depending on how ofcourse the equals method has been implemented for the objects. equals method cannot be applied on primitives(which means that
if a is a primitive a.equals(someobject) is not allowed, however someobject.equals(a) is allowed).
== operator compares two object references to check whether they refer to same instance. This also, will return true on successful match.for example
public class Example{
public static void main(String[] args){
String s1 = "Java";
String s2 = "Java";
String s3 = new string ("Java");
test(Sl == s2) //true
test(s1 == s3) //false
}}
above example == is a reference comparison i.e. both objects point to the same memory location
String equals() is evaluates to the comparison of values in the objects.
public class EqualsExample1{
public static void main(String args[]){
String s = "Hell";
String s1 =new string( "Hello");
String s2 =new string( "Hello");
s1.equals(s2); //true
s.equals(s1) ; //false
}}
above example It compares the content of the strings. It will return true if string matches, else returns false.
In Java, when the “==” operator is used to compare 2 objects, it checks to see if the objects refer to the same place in memory. EX:
String obj1 = new String("xyz");
String obj2 = new String("xyz");
if(obj1 == obj2)
System.out.println("obj1==obj2 is TRUE");
else
System.out.println("obj1==obj2 is FALSE");
Even though the strings have the same exact characters (“xyz”), The code above will actually output:
obj1==obj2 is FALSE
Java String class actually overrides the default equals() implementation in the Object class – and it overrides the method so that it checks only the values of the strings, not their locations in memory. This means that if you call the equals() method to compare 2 String objects, then as long as the actual sequence of characters is equal, both objects are considered equal.
String obj1 = new String("xyz");
String obj2 = new String("xyz");
if(obj1.equals(obj2))
System.out.printlln("obj1==obj2 is TRUE");
else
System.out.println("obj1==obj2 is FALSE");
This code will output the following:
obj1==obj2 is TRUE
public static void main(String[] args){
String s1 = new String("hello");
String s2 = new String("hello");
System.out.println(s1.equals(s2));
////
System.out.println(s1 == s2);
System.out.println("-----------------------------");
String s3 = "hello";
String s4 = "hello";
System.out.println(s3.equals(s4));
////
System.out.println(s3 == s4);
}
Here in this code u can campare the both '==' and '.equals'
here .equals is used to compare the reference objects and '==' is used to compare state of objects..
The equals( ) method and the == operator perform two different operations. The equals( ) method compares the characters inside a String object. The == operator compares two object references to see whether they refer to the same instance. The following program shows how two different String objects can contain the same characters, but references to these objects will not compare as equal:
// equals() vs ==
class EqualsNotEqualTo {
public static void main(String args[]) {
String s1 = "Hello";
String s2 = new String(s1);
System.out.println(s1 + " equals " + s2 + " -> " +
s1.equals(s2));
System.out.println(s1 + " == " + s2 + " -> " + (s1 == s2));
}
}
The variable s1 refers to the String instance created by “Hello”. The object referred to by
s2 is created with s1 as an initializer. Thus, the contents of the two String objects are identical,
but they are distinct objects. This means that s1 and s2 do not refer to the same objects and
are, therefore, not ==, as is shown here by the output of the preceding example:
Hello equals Hello -> true
Hello == Hello -> false
Lets say that "==" operator returns true if both both operands belong to same object but when it will return true as we can't assign a single object multiple values
public static void main(String [] args){
String s1 = "Hello";
String s1 = "Hello"; // This is not possible to assign multiple values to single object
if(s1 == s1){
// Now this retruns true
}
}
Now when this happens practically speaking, If its not happen then why this is == compares functionality....
(1) == can be be applied for both primitives and object types, but equals() method can be applied for only object types.
(2) == cannot be overridden for content comparison, but equals method can be overridden for content comparison(ex; String class, wrapper classes, collection classes).
(3) == gives incomparable types error when try to apply for heterogeneous types , where as equals method returns false.
Here is a simple interpretation about your problem:
== (equal to) used to evaluate arithmetic expression
where as
equals() method used to compare string
Therefore, it its better to use == for numeric operations & equals() method for String related operations. So, for comparison of objects the equals() method would be right choice.

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