Java String initialization as primitive type [duplicate]

Question

String is an Object. Why it is possible to initialize it the same way as primitive type: String str = "my string";

I was expecting to see initialization by using constructor only: new String("my string");

This may also be useful.

Sotirios Delimanolis
– Sotirios Delimanolis

2015-10-05 22:57:35 +00:00
Commented Oct 5, 2015 at 22:57 — Sotirios Delimanolis
– Sotirios Delimanolis, Commented Oct 5, 2015 at 22:57

user4668606 · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-05 22:50:08Z

2

This is just a simplification provided by java. The other alternative would be enormous ugly. Your alternative solution has one simple logical mistake:

new String("my string");

Just aswell uses a string-literal as simply "my string". The real alternative would be

new String(new char[]{'m','y',' ',...,'n','g'});

Or just the same example using a byte[] (deprecated), which would look even worse.

answered Oct 5, 2015 at 22:50

user4668606

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2 Comments

Wild Goat Over a year ago

Thanks, so basically compiler converts that "my string" to char sequence for us?

azurefrog Over a year ago

@WildGoat There's no conversion required, a String literally IS a CharSequence in Java, since that's one of the interfaces the String class implements.

Francisco Romero · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-05 22:48:42Z

0

You can go to the javadocs:

Unless an explicit copy of original is needed, use of this constructor is unnecessary since Strings are immutable.

answered Oct 5, 2015 at 22:48

Francisco Romero

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