Difference between == and equals() in java

[Praveen palukuri]

hi,
can u give exact difference between == operator and .equals() in java.

Thank You in advance.

[Ernest Friedman-Hill]

"==" asks whether two objects are the same physical object -- the same chunk of memory. "equals()" is a method which by default means the same thing, but can be overridden to ask whether two objects are "the same" by some appropriate definition. For example, two String objects are "the same" if they have the same characters in the same order, even if they are two different physical objects. String overrides equals() to mean this.