Constant String comparison with equals

[Tejas Jain]

They both work, but which is better

boolean isFoo1(String s){
return s.equals("Foo");
}

boolean isFoo2(String s){
return "Foo".equals(s); // I think it is faster
}

Your comments?

[Stephan van Hulst]

Personally I prefer the first option, because it more or less follows the concept of variable -> operator -> constant.

The second option has the 'benefit' that if s is null, it will return false, instead of throwing a NullPointerException.
I actually like that it throws a NullPointerException, because it indicates that something in my program might have gone wrong. Others disagree though.

[Pat Farrell]

As a rule, I much prefer clear, obvious code. Thus, I prefer

if (s.equals("Foo"))

just because its obvious in a nanosecond what its doing. We write our software as much for the ease of future readers/engineers as we do for the ease of compilation and execution.

[Rob Spoor]

For me it depends. If the variable shouldn't be null I use s.equals("Foo"). Otherwise, being lazy, I prefer "Foo".equals(s) over s != null && s.equals("Foo").