String references/values

[Gerry Giese]

I'm brain dead or something, because I got myself all confused over String. Which of the following is better, and why? I was about to do Case 3 when I started getting all loopy. This has been a long day, so forgive me! Oh, and if you happen to know where a reference is that explains your answer, I'd appreciate it!
Case 1

resetAll();
public void resetAll()
{
   attr1 = new String( "" );
   attr2 = new String( "" );
   attr3 = new String( "" );
   attr4 = new String( "" );
}

Case 2

resetAll();
public void resetAll()
{
   attr1 = "";
   attr2 = "";
   attr3 = "";
   attr4 = "";
}

Case 3

resetAll( "" );
public void resetAll( string filler )
{
   attr1 = filler;
   attr2 = filler;
   attr3 = filler;
   attr4 = filler;
}

Case 4

resetAll( new String( "" ) );
public void resetAll( string filler )
{
   attr1 = filler;
   attr2 = filler;
   attr3 = filler;
   attr4 = filler;
}

[Bear Bibeault]

Hi Gerry,
You have two different outcomes here. In one scenario you set the member all to the empty string, and in the other scenario you set them to a string that you pass.
In either case you should probably never do something like:

xyz = new String( "" );

All this does is create a spurious object. Since Strings are immutable, creating the new String instance gives you absolutely no advantage over:

xyz = "";

hth,
bear
[ April 26, 2002: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]