How do I use the equality operator in Java?

Equality operator is used to compare two similar things (numbers, characters, boolean, primitives and object references). Equality operator will always result in boolean value (true or false).

For object reference, it will return true if only both reference variables refer to the same object.

package org.kodejava.basic;

public class EqualityDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        int value1 = 10, value2 = 10, number1 = 10;
        char a = 'a', b = 'b';
        double number2 = 10d;
        Cat kitty = new Cat("Kitty");
        Cat kitten = new Cat("Kitty");
        Cat sweetie = kitty;

        if (value1 == value2) {
            System.out.println("Equal");
        }

        if (a != b) {
            System.out.println("Not Equal");
        }

        // though it have different type, but it have same value
        if (number1 == number2) {
            System.out.println("Equal");
        }

        // it's not refer to the same object, so it will return
        // false
        if (kitty == kitten) {
            System.out.format("(kitty == kitten) = " + (kitty == kitten));
        } else {
            System.out.println("(kitty == kitten) = " + (kitty == kitten));
        }

        // it's refer to the same object, so it will return true
        if (kitty == sweetie) {
            System.out.println("(kitty == sweetie) = " + (kitty == sweetie));
        }

        if (true != false) {
            System.out.println("true != false");
        }

    }
}

class Cat {
    private String name;

    Cat(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }
}

And here are the result of the program:

Equal
Not Equal
Equal
(kitty == kitten) = false
(kitty == sweetie) = true
true != false

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Wayan

Founder at Kode Java

A programmer, runner and recreational diver, lives on the island of Bali, Indonesia. Programming in Java, Spring Framework, Hibernate / JPA, MySQL. To support me working on this project, buy me a cup of coffee, every little bit helps. Thank you.

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