String comparison in Java Weird

Question

Hi I have a strange problem with my code and I cant figure out whats wrong.

I have:

ArrayList called players

Class: Player

Class: Name

Player class contains Name class which contains 3 Strings FirstName MiddleName LastName

The problem is when im trying to do

For( int i = 0; i < players.size(); i++)
{
    if( players.get(i).getName().getFirst() == "First1")
    {
         // Some Code 
    }

    System.out.printf(players.get(i).getName().getFirst());
}

If statement is never true, weird thing is when im using system.out to check as below

System.out.printf(players.get(i).getName().getFirst());

it returns:

First1 First2 First3

getName() method returns object name and getFirst() returns String FirstName

Any ideas where the problem is?

Please refer this [LINK][1] for detailed info about String comparison. [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/513832/how-do-i-compare-strings-in-java — Maheshkumar, May 15 '14 at 07:21
== compares if they are literally the same object, `.equals()` tests if they "look the same" — Richard Tingle, May 15 '14 at 07:22
@maheshrpm only minimarkdown works in comments. Of the form `[see example here](www.example.com)` — Richard Tingle, May 15 '14 at 07:23

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered May 15 '14 at 07:18

4

Never EVER EVER EVER compare Strings with ==. use .equals() instead. "==" compares references of Strings. .equals() compares actual values.

answered May 15 '14 at 07:18

TheLostMind

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Prabhakaran Ramaswamy · Answer 2 · 2014-05-15T07:53:20.697

3

To compare String objects in java use .equals() method instead of "==" operator. If you want ignore the case use .equalsIgnoreCase() method.

For String comparison you should use like this

if( "First1".equals(players.get(i).getName().getFirst()))

edited May 15 '14 at 07:53

answered May 15 '14 at 07:18

Prabhakaran Ramaswamy

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String comparison in Java Weird

2 Answers2