Compare Strings in JAVA

== tests for reference equality.

.equals() tests for value equality.

equals() method is present in the java.lang.Object class and it is expected to check for the equivalence of the state of objects!. That means, the contents of the objects. Whereas the == operator is expected to check the actual object instances are same or not.

Example

Consider two different reference variables str1 and str2 

str1 = new String("abc");
str2 = new String("abc");

if you use the equals()

System.out.println((str1.equals(str2))?"TRUE":"FALSE");

You will get the output as TRUE

if you use ==

System.out.println((str1==str2)?"TRUE":"FALSE");

Now you will get the FALSE as output because both str1 and str2 are pointing to two different objects even though both of them share the same string content. It is because of new String() everytime a new object is created.