In Java == operator and equals() are used to perform comparison. In this article, we are going to see the difference between the “==” operator and the equals() method in Java.
| == Operator | equals() method |
|---|---|
| 1. It is an operator in Java. == operator applies to both primitive and object types. | 1. It is a method in Java. equals() method is only applicable to object types we can not use for primitive. |
| 2. In this case of Object reference == operator is for reference comparison (address comparison) | 2. By default equals() also meant for refrence comparision. |
| 3. We can not override == operator | 3. We can overide equals() method |
| 4. To use the == operator it is compulsory that there should be some relation between argument types otherwise we will get a compile time error. | 4. If there is no relation between argument types then the equals method would not raise any compile time or run time error, It simply returns false. |
In general we can use == operator for refrence comparision and equals method for content comparision
Note- For any object reference if any argument is null then it will always return false.