String storage

String storage 

As mentioned, there are two ways to construct a string: implicit construction by assigning a string literal or explicitly creating a String object via the new operator and constructor. For example,

String s1 = "Hello"; // String literal
String s2 = "Hello"; // String literal
String s3 = s1; // same reference
String s4 = new String("Hello"); // String object
String s5 = new String("Hello"); // String object


Java has provided a special mechanism for keeping the String literals - in a so-called string common pool. If two string literals have the same contents, they will share the same storage inside the common pool. This approach is adopted to conserve storage for frequently-used strings. On the other hand, String objects created via the new operator and constructor are kept in the heap. Each String object in the heap has its own storage just like any other object. There is no sharing of storage in heap even if two String objects have the same contents.

You can use the method equals() of the String class to compare the contents of two Strings. You can use the relational equality operator '==' to compare the references (or pointers) of two objects. Study the following codes:

s1 == s1; // true, same pointerv s1 == s2; // true, s1 and s1 share storage in common pool
s1 == s3; // true, s3 is assigned same pointer as s1v s1.equals(s3); // true, same contents
s1 == s4; // false, different pointers
s1.equals(s4); // true, same contents
s4 == s5; // false, different pointers in heap
s4.equals(s5); // true, same contents


Important Notes: 

• In the above example, I used relational equality operator '==' to compare the references of two String objects. This is done to demonstrate the differences between string literals sharing storage in the common pool and String objects created in the heap. It is a logical error to use (str1 == str2) in your program to compare the contents of two Strings.
• String can be created by directly assigning a String literal which is shared in a common pool. It is uncommon and not recommended to use the new operator to construct a String object in the heap.