== vs equals method in case of String and primitive types

Object equality is tested using == operator. Here it is checked whether 2 references are pointing to same object or not.
While value equality is tested using the .equals(Object) method.
So consider following code snippet:

String one = new String("abc");
String two = new String("abc");

So here

one==two is false

one.equals(two) is true

one==two, because we are creating 2 new objects as specified by new keywords. But as their values are same one.equals(two) returns true because values are same.

Now if we say:

String three = one;

Now both one==two as well one.equals(two) returns true.

Using new keyword vs not using it to create 2 strings

Now consider 2 cases, when we create 2 strings with same value, but first using new keyword and then not using new keyword:

Case1 : Using new keyword:

String data = new String("123");
String moreData = new String("123");

Here data==moreData is false.

Case 2 : Not using new keyword:

String letters = "abc";
String moreLetters = "abc";

Here data==moreData is true.

Why?

Explaining the case 1 is very simple. Because it falls inline with our earlier explanation of == and != operators. But how can we explain case 2, where string comparison using == operator, returns true.

This is due to the compiler and runtime efficiency. In the compiled class file only one set of data "abc" is stored, not two. In this situation only one object is created, therefore the equality is true between these object. Read here for more on this. Not only strings , compiler also support this type of constant pooling for integers, bytes and other value types. See here for this.


Note:

Even though one set of data "123" is stored in the class, this is still treated differently at runtime. An explicit instantiation is used to create the String objects. Therefore, in this case, two objects have been created, so the equality is false. It is important to note that "==" is always used for object equality and does not ever refer to the values in an object. Always use .equals when checking looking for a "meaningful" comparison.