Java String initialization as primitive type

Question

String is an Object. Why it is possible to initialize it the same way as primitive type: String str = "my string";

I was expecting to see initialization by using constructor only: new String("my string");

[This](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8046045/java-string-literal-pool-and-string-object) may also be useful. — Sotirios Delimanolis, Oct 05 '15 at 22:57

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 05 '15 at 22:50

2

This is just a simplification provided by java. The other alternative would be enormous ugly. Your alternative solution has one simple logical mistake:

new String("my string");

Just aswell uses a string-literal as simply "my string". The real alternative would be

new String(new char[]{'m','y',' ',...,'n','g'});

Or just the same example using a byte[] (deprecated), which would look even worse.

answered Oct 05 '15 at 22:50

Thanks, so basically compiler converts that "my string" to char sequence for us? – Wild Goat Oct 05 '15 at 22:54
@WildGoat There's no conversion required, a `String` literally IS a `CharSequence` in Java, since that's one of the interfaces the `String` class implements. – azurefrog Oct 05 '15 at 23:01

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 05 '15 at 22:48

0

You can go to the javadocs:

Unless an explicit copy of original is needed, use of this constructor is unnecessary since Strings are immutable.

answered Oct 05 '15 at 22:48

Francisco Romero

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Java String initialization as primitive type

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