Java Programs For Interviews

Q: What’s the difference between comparison done by equals method and == operator?
A: In Java, equals() method is used to compare the contents of two string objects and returns true if the two have same value while == operator compares the references of two string objects.

In the following example, equals() returns true as the two string objects have same values. However == operator returns false as both string objects are referencing to different objects:























public class equalsTest {
public static void main(String args[]) {
String srt1="Hello World";
String str2="Hello World";
if (str1.equals(str2))
{// this condition is true
System.out.println("str1 and str2 are equal in terms of values");
}
if (str1==str2) {
//This condition is not true
System.out.println("Both strings are referencing same object");
}
else
{
// This condition is true
System.out.println("Both strings are referencing different objects");
}
}}