This question already has answers here:
String.equals versus == [duplicate]
(20 answers)
How do I compare strings in Java?
(23 answers)
Closed 7 years ago.
In Program 1 I have declared two String and initialized them as "MADAM". When running I am checking the equality of their reference variable (by '==' operator') then I am getting a "true" response.
But in Program 2 I am declaring a String 'S' and initialize it as "MADAM". After that i am running a reverse loop and storing the characters of 'S' in reverse order in other String variable. Now i have again tried to check the equality of reference variable (by '==' operator') and am getting the response as 'false'. As both the String objects are of same value and are stored in constant Pool Area so both the variable should equate and the output in both the scenario should be 'true'. But WHY it is not same?
Program 1:
class Reverse {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String s="MADAM"; String rev="MADAM"; System.out.println(s==rev);
}
}
Output - true
Program 2:
class Reverse {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String s="MADAM"; String rev="";
for(int x=s.length()-1;x>=0;x--) { rev+=s.charAt(x); }
System.out.println(s==rev);
}
}
Output- false
In program 1 java compiler saves "MADAM" string in one memory location and assigns both "s" and "rev" to that location hence "s==rev" returns true because they both refer to the same address.
you should use "equals()" method to compare two strings. e.equals(rev);
have a look at this question:
Java String.equals versus ==
In your first class both strings are initialize to same object. So both are pointing to same memory location.
Next class, Rev is intilialized to "" value and see to madam so both have got different memory location. So false.
In essence,
if you use == for comparison, you are comparing their identity.
If you want to compare the object's value, use .equals()
String s="MADAM"; String rev="MADAM"; System.out.println(s==rev);
The above code will return true, because both Strings will be stored in the same memory location.
However, you can try the following, it will return you false:
String s1 = "aaa";
String s2 = new String("aaa");
System.out.println(s1 == s2); //false (comparing memory location)
System.out.println(s1.equals(s2)); //true (comparing value)
Side note: It is generally a bad practice to create Strings using new String(""). It was only used for demonstration purposes only.
This question already has answers here:
What is the Java string pool and how is "s" different from new String("s")? [duplicate]
(5 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
I am confused about StringPool in Java. I came across this while reading the String chapter in Java. Please help me understand, in layman terms, what StringPool actually does.
This prints true (even though we don't use equals method: correct way to compare strings)
String s = "a" + "bc";
String t = "ab" + "c";
System.out.println(s == t);
When compiler optimizes your string literals, it sees that both s and t have same value and thus you need only one string object. It's safe because String is immutable in Java.
As result, both s and t point to the same object and some little memory saved.
Name 'string pool' comes from the idea that all already defined string are stored in some 'pool' and before creating new String object compiler checks if such string is already defined.
I don't think it actually does much, it looks like it's just a cache for string literals. If you have multiple Strings who's values are the same, they'll all point to the same string literal in the string pool.
String s1 = "Arul"; //case 1
String s2 = "Arul"; //case 2
In case 1, literal s1 is created newly and kept in the pool. But in case 2, literal s2 refer the s1, it will not create new one instead.
if(s1 == s2) System.out.println("equal"); //Prints equal.
String n1 = new String("Arul");
String n2 = new String("Arul");
if(n1 == n2) System.out.println("equal"); //No output.
http://p2p.wrox.com/java-espanol/29312-string-pooling.html
Let's start with a quote from the virtual machine spec:
Loading of a class or interface that contains a String literal may create a new String object (§2.4.8) to represent that literal. This may not occur if the a String object has already been created to represent a previous occurrence of that literal, or if the String.intern method has been invoked on a String object representing the same string as the literal.
This may not occur - This is a hint, that there's something special about String objects. Usually, invoking a constructor will always create a new instance of the class. This is not the case with Strings, especially when String objects are 'created' with literals. Those Strings are stored in a global store (pool) - or at least the references are kept in a pool, and whenever a new instance of an already known Strings is needed, the vm returns a reference to the object from the pool. In pseudo code, it may go like that:
1: a := "one"
--> if(pool[hash("one")] == null) // true
pool[hash("one") --> "one"]
return pool[hash("one")]
2: b := "one"
--> if(pool[hash("one")] == null) // false, "one" already in pool
pool[hash("one") --> "one"]
return pool[hash("one")]
So in this case, variables a and b hold references to the same object. IN this case, we have (a == b) && (a.equals(b)) == true.
This is not the case if we use the constructor:
1: a := "one"
2: b := new String("one")
Again, "one" is created on the pool but then we create a new instance from the same literal, and in this case, it leads to (a == b) && (a.equals(b)) == false
So why do we have a String pool? Strings and especially String literals are widely used in typical Java code. And they are immutable. And being immutable allowed to cache String to save memory and increase performance (less effort for creation, less garbage to be collected).
As programmers we don't have to care much about the String pool, as long as we keep in mind:
(a == b) && (a.equals(b)) may be true or false (always use equals to compare Strings)
Don't use reflection to change the backing char[] of a String (as you don't know who is actualling using that String)
When the JVM loads classes, or otherwise sees a literal string, or some code interns a string, it adds the string to a mostly-hidden lookup table that has one copy of each such string. If another copy is added, the runtime arranges it so that all the literals refer to the same string object. This is called "interning". If you say something like
String s = "test";
return (s == "test");
it'll return true, because the first and second "test" are actually the same object. Comparing interned strings this way can be much, much faster than String.equals, as there's a single reference comparison rather than a bunch of char comparisons.
You can add a string to the pool by calling String.intern(), which will give you back the pooled version of the string (which could be the same string you're interning, but you'd be crazy to rely on that -- you often can't be sure exactly what code has been loaded and run up til now and interned the same string). The pooled version (the string returned from intern) will be equal to any identical literal. For example:
String s1 = "test";
String s2 = new String("test"); // "new String" guarantees a different object
System.out.println(s1 == s2); // should print "false"
s2 = s2.intern();
System.out.println(s1 == s2); // should print "true"
I learned that it is from the devil to test String equality with == instead of String.equals(), because every String was a reference to its own object.
But if i use something like
System.out.println("Hello" == "Hello");
it prints true.
Why?
It doesn't. It's still a bad thing to do - you'll still be testing reference equality instead of value equality.
public class Test
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
String x = "hello";
String y = new String(x);
System.out.println(x == y); // Prints false
}
}
If you're seeing == testing "work" now then it's because you genuinely have equal references. The most common reason for seeing this would probably be due to interning of String literals, but that's been in Java forever:
public class Test
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
String x = "hello";
String y = "hel" + "lo"; // Concatenated at compile-time
System.out.println(x == y); // Prints true
}
}
This is guaranteed by section 3.10.5 of the Java Language Specification:
Each string literal is a reference
(§4.3) to an instance (§4.3.1, §12.5)
of class String (§4.3.3). String
objects have a constant value. String
literals-or, more generally, strings
that are the values of constant
expressions (§15.28)-are "interned" so
as to share unique instances, using
the method String.intern.
It hasn't changed. However, the Java Compiler uses string.intern() to make sure that identical strings in source code compile to same String object. If however you load a String from a File or Database it will not be the same object, unless you force this using String.intern() or some other method.
It is a bad idea, and you should still use .equals()
Look, this is a tricky concept.
There is a difference between:
// These are String literals
String a = "Hiabc";
String b = "abc";
String c = "abc";
and
// These are String objects.
String a = new String("Hiabc");
String b = new String("abc");
String c = new String("abc");
If your strings were objects, i.e.,
String b = new String("abc");
String c = new String("abc");
Then, two different objects would have been created in the String pool at two different memory locations and doing
b == c
would have resulted false.
But since your String b and String c are literals,
b == c
results true. This is because two different objects were not created. And both a and b are pointing to same String in the stack memory.
This is the difference. You are right, == compares for memory location. And that is the reason,
a.substring(2, 5) == b; // a,substring(2, 5) = "abc" which is at the location of b, and
b == c // will be true, coz both b and c are literals. And their values are compared and not memory locations.
In order to have two separate Strings with same values but at different locations in the String pool and NOT stack memory, you need to create String objects as shown above.
So,
a.substring(2, 5) == b; // and
b == c; // will be false. as not both are objects. Hence are stored on separate memory locations on the String pool.
you have to use
a.substring(2, 5).equals(b);
b.equals(c);
in case of objects.
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.....