When should we use intern method of String on Stri

Question

According to String#intern(), intern method is supposed to return the String from the String pool if the String is found in String pool, otherwise a new string object will be added in String pool and the reference of this String is returned.

So i tried this:

String s1 = "Rakesh";
String s2 = "Rakesh";
String s3 = "Rakesh".intern();

if ( s1 == s2 ){
    System.out.println("s1 and s2 are same");  // 1.
}

if ( s1 == s3 ){
    System.out.println("s1 and s3 are same" );  // 2.
}

I was expecting that s1 and s3 are same will be printed as s3 is interned, and s1 and s2 are same will not be printed. But the result is: both lines are printed. So that means, by default String constants are interned. But if it is so, then why do we need the intern method? In other words when should we use this method?

Answer 1

you should make out two period time which are compile time and runtime time.for example:

//example 1 
"test" == "test" // --> true 
"test" == "te" + "st" // --> true

//example 2 
"test" == "!test".substring(1) // --> false
"test" == "!test".substring(1).intern() // --> true

in the one hand,in the example 1,we find the results are all return true,because in the compile time,the jvm will put the "test" to the pool of literal strings,if the jvm find "test" exists,then it will use the exists one,in example 1,the "test" strings are all point to the same memory address,so the example 1 will return true. in the other hand,in the example 2,the method of substring() execute in the runtime time, in the case of "test" == "!test".substring(1),the pool will create two string object,"test" and "!test",so they are different reference objects,so this case will return false,in the case of "test" == "!test".substring(1).intern(),the method of intern() will put the ""!test".substring(1)" to the pool of literal strings,so in this case,they are same reference objects,so will return true.

Answer 2

Java automatically interns String literals. This means that in many cases, the == operator appears to work for Strings in the same way that it does for ints or other primitive values.

Since interning is automatic for String literals, the intern() method is to be used on Strings constructed with new String()

Using your example:

String s1 = "Rakesh";
String s2 = "Rakesh";
String s3 = "Rakesh".intern();
String s4 = new String("Rakesh");
String s5 = new String("Rakesh").intern();

if ( s1 == s2 ){
    System.out.println("s1 and s2 are same");  // 1.
}

if ( s1 == s3 ){
    System.out.println("s1 and s3 are same" );  // 2.
}

if ( s1 == s4 ){
    System.out.println("s1 and s4 are same" );  // 3.
}

if ( s1 == s5 ){
    System.out.println("s1 and s5 are same" );  // 4.
}

will return:

s1 and s2 are same
s1 and s3 are same
s1 and s5 are same

Refer to JavaTechniques "String Equality and Interning" for more information.

Answer 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_interning

string interning is a method of storing only one copy of each distinct string value, which must be immutable. Interning strings makes some string processing tasks more time- or space-efficient at the cost of requiring more time when the string is created or interned. The distinct values are stored in a string intern pool.

Answer 4

String s1 = "Anish";
        String s2 = "Anish";

        String s3 = new String("Anish");

        /*
         * When the intern method is invoked, if the pool already contains a
         * string equal to this String object as determined by the
         * method, then the string from the pool is
         * returned. Otherwise, this String object is added to the
         * pool and a reference to this String object is returned.
         */
        String s4 = new String("Anish").intern();
        if (s1 == s2) {
            System.out.println("s1 and s2 are same");
        }

        if (s1 == s3) {
            System.out.println("s1 and s3 are same");
        }

        if (s1 == s4) {
            System.out.println("s1 and s4 are same");
        }

OUTPUT

s1 and s2 are same
s1 and s4 are same

Answer 5

As you said, that string intern() method will first find from the String pool, if it finds, then it will return the object that points to that, or will add a new String into the pool.

    String s1 = "Hello";
    String s2 = "Hello";
    String s3 = "Hello".intern();
    String s4 = new String("Hello");

    System.out.println(s1 == s2);//true
    System.out.println(s1 == s3);//true
    System.out.println(s1 == s4.intern());//true

The s1 and s2 are two objects pointing to the String pool "Hello", and using "Hello".intern() will find that s1 and s2. So "s1 == s3" returns true, as well as to the s3.intern().

Answer 6

string intern() method is used to create an exact copy of heap string object in string constant pool. The string objects in the string constant pool are automatically interned but string objects in heap are not. The main use of creating interns is to save the memory space and to perform faster comparison of string objects.

Source : What is string intern in java?