Difference between string object and string litera

Question

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• What is the difference between “text” and new String(“text”)? 9 answers

What is the difference between

String str = new String("abc");

and

String str = "abc";

Answer 1

In addition to the answers already posted, also see this excellent article on javaranch.

Answer 2

A String literal is a Java language concept. This is a String literal:

"a String literal"

A String object is an individual instance of the java.lang.String class.

String s1 = "abcde";
String s2 = new String("abcde");
String s3 = "abcde";

All are valid, but have a slight difference. s1 will refer to an interned String object. This means, that the character sequence "abcde" will be stored at a central place, and whenever the same literal "abcde" is used again, the JVM will not create a new String object but use the reference of the cached String.

s2 is guranteed to be a new String object, so in this case we have:

s1 == s2 // is false
s1 == s3 // is true
s1.equals(s2) // is true

Answer 3

The long answer is available here, so I'll give you the short one.

When you do this:

String str = "abc";

You are calling the intern() method on String. This method references an internal pool of String objects. If the String you called intern() on already resides in the pool, then a reference to that String is assigned to str. If not, then the new String is placed in the pool, and a reference to it is then assigned to str.

Given the following code:

String str = "abc";
String str2 = "abc";
boolean identity = str == str2;

When you check for object identity by doing == (you are literally asking: do these two references point to the same object?), you get true.

However, you don't need to intern() Strings. You can force the creation on a new Object on the Heap by doing this:

String str = new String("abc");
String str2 = new String("abc");
boolean identity = str == str2;

In this instance, str and str2 are references to different Objects, neither of which have been interned, so that when you test for Object identity using ==, you will get false.

In terms of good coding practice: do not use == to check for String equality, use .equals() instead.

Answer 4

"abc" is a literal String.

In Java, these literal strings are pooled internally and the same String instance of "abc" is used where ever you have that string literal declared in your code. So "abc" == "abc" will always be true as they are both the same String instance.

Using the String.intern() method you can add any string you like to the internally pooled strings, these will be kept in memory until java exits.

On the other hand, using new String("abc") will create a new string object in memory, which is logically the same as the "abc" literal. "abc" == new String("abc") will always be false, as although they are logically equal they refer to different instances.

Wrapping a String constructor around a string literal is of no value, it just needlessly uses more memory than it needs to.

Answer 5

There is a subtle differences between String object and string literal.

String s = "abc"; // creates one String object and one reference variable

In this simple case, "abc" will go in the pool and s will refer to it.

String s = new String("abc"); // creates two objects,and one reference variable

In this case, because we used the new keyword, Java will create a new String object in normal (non-pool) memory, and s will refer to it. In addition, the literal "abc" will be placed in the pool.

Answer 6

In the first case, there are two objects created.

In the second case, it's just one.

Although both ways str is referring to "abc".