If statement with String comparison fails [duplicate] If statement with String comparison fails [duplicate] multithreading multithreading

If statement with String comparison fails [duplicate]


In your example you are comparing the string objects, not their content.

Your comparison should be :

if (s.equals("/quit"))

Or if s string nullity doesn't mind / or you really don't like NPEs:

if ("/quit".equals(s))


To compare Strings for equality, don't use ==. The == operator checks to see if two objects are exactly the same object:

In Java there are many string comparisons.

String s = "something", t = "maybe something else";if (s == t)      // Legal, but usually WRONG.if (s.equals(t)) // RIGHTif (s > t)    // ILLEGALif (s.compareTo(t) > 0) // also CORRECT>


Strings in java are objects, so when comparing with ==, you are comparing references, rather than values. The correct way is to use equals().

However, there is a way. If you want to compare String objects using the == operator, you can make use of the way the JVM copes with strings. For example:

String a = "aaa";String b = "aaa";boolean b = a == b;

b would be true. Why?

Because the JVM has a table of String constants. So whenever you use string literals (quotes "), the virtual machine returns the same objects, and therefore == returns true.

You can use the same "table" even with non-literal strings by using the intern() method. It returns the object that corresponds to the current string value from that table (or puts it there, if it is not). So:

String a = new String("aa");String b = new String("aa");boolean check1 = a == b; // falseboolean check1 = a.intern() == b.intern(); // true

It follows that for any two strings s and t, s.intern() == t.intern() is true if and only if s.equals(t) is true.