What is the difference between String and StringBu

Question

What is the difference between String and StringBuffer in Java?

Is there a maximum size for String?

Answer 1

String is immutable. 

Why? Check here.

StringBuffer is not. It is thread safe. 

Further questions like when to use which and other concepts can be figured out following this.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

From the API:

A thread-safe, mutable sequence of characters. A string buffer is like a String, but can be modified. At any point in time it contains some particular sequence of characters, but the length and content of the sequence can be changed through certain method calls.

Answer 3

By printing the hashcode of the String/StringBuffer object after any append operation also prove, String object is getting recreated internally every time with new values rather than using the same String object.

public class MutableImmutable {

/**
 * @param args
 */
public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println("String is immutable");
    String s = "test";
    System.out.println(s+"::"+s.hashCode());
    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
        s += "tre";
        System.out.println(s+"::"+s.hashCode());
    }

    System.out.println("String Buffer is mutable");

    StringBuffer strBuf = new StringBuffer("test");
    System.out.println(strBuf+"::"+strBuf.hashCode());
    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
        strBuf.append("tre");
        System.out.println(strBuf+"::"+strBuf.hashCode());
    }

 }

}

Output: It prints object value along with its hashcode

    String is immutable
    test::3556498
    testtre::-1422435371
    testtretre::-1624680014
    testtretretre::-855723339
    testtretretretre::2071992018
    testtretretretretre::-555654763
    testtretretretretretre::-706970638
    testtretretretretretretre::1157458037
    testtretretretretretretretre::1835043090
    testtretretretretretretretretre::1425065813
    testtretretretretretretretretretre::-1615970766
    String Buffer is mutable
    test::28117098
    testtre::28117098
    testtretre::28117098
    testtretretre::28117098
    testtretretretre::28117098
    testtretretretretre::28117098
    testtretretretretretre::28117098
    testtretretretretretretre::28117098
    testtretretretretretretretre::28117098
    testtretretretretretretretretre::28117098
    testtretretretretretretretretretre::28117098